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GREAT DEEDS OF 
GREAT MEN 


EVIE CORNEY 

M 

AND 

GEORGE W. DORLAND 


REVISED EDITION 


D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO ATLANTA 
DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO LONDON 


c^c/l 

\^ 0 


Copyright, 1919, 1930 
By D. C. Heath and Company 

No part of this hook may he reproduced in any form 
without written permission of the publisher. 


PRINTED IN U. S. A. 


OCT 2o 1930 

©CIA 28995 


/ 


O 

to 


PREFACE 

This little book is planned to give intermediate pupils, 
through the story of the achievements of the world’s greatest 
discoverers, explorers, and conquerors from the fifth century 
b.c. to the twentieth century a.d., an idea of how the world 
came to be known as it is to-day. 

While each story is complete in itself, and may be used 
independently, if need be, to meet the requirements of a course 
of study, yet each is so linked to the others that the book as a 
whole is an elementary history of the world from the time of 
Darius to the present. 

The courtesy of the Houghton Mifflin Company in per¬ 
mitting the use of the two stanzas from Margaret Sangster’s 
poem, 4 ‘Washington’s Birthday,” in the story of Washington, 
is gratefully acknowledged. 

The authors also acknowledge their indebtedness to the 
well-known authorities on the life and times of the men selected 
as the subjects of these stories. 


iii 



TO OUR YOUNG READERS 

These stories of famous men are told with two main pur¬ 
poses. 

The first purpose is to help you to learn something of how 
the known world has grown from small beginnings to what it is 
to-day. Many other great men, besides those whose stories 
are told here, have helped in this growth. You will hear and 
read of them from time to time, as you continue your studies. 

The second purpose is to show you why and how these men 
did certain things. You will come to see how ambition, skill, 
and courage enabled them to overcome difficulties and achieve 
results. 

While we cannot always applaud their deeds and praise 
their methods, we can learn something from the story of every 
one of them. 

What you thus learn may help you later to choose worthy 
aims in life, and to use all your courage and skill to make your 
dreams come true. 


iv 


CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. Darius, the King of the Wise Men . i 

II. Pericles and the City Beautiful. 8 

III. Alexander and His Little Army Take a Mighty 

Empire. 16 

IV. Caesar Becomes the Ruler of the City of the Seven 

Hills. 27 

V. Alaric, Who Sacked a City but Spared its Churches 39 

VI. Clovis Comes to Paris. 47 

VII. Charlemagne, the King That Had Two Crowns to 

Wear. 5 1 

VIII. Alfred, Who Built the First English Navy. 57 

IX. William of Normandy, Who Conquered a Country 

but not its Language. 65 

X. Richard the Lion-Hearted. 72 

XI. Marco Polo and the Land of the Golden Dragon ... 80 

XII. Columbus, Looking for a New Way to the Spice 

Islands, Finds a New World. 89 

XIII. Vasco da Gama Finds What Columbus Looked For ioo 

XIV. Cortes, Who Ruined a City to Win It. 109 

XV. Magellan and the First Trip Around the World. 120 

XVI. Pizarro, Who Took Their Crown away from the 

Children of the Sun. 131 

XVII. Francis Drake and the Second Trip Around the 

World.*. I 4 i 

XVIII. Robert Clive, a Clerk Who Won India for England. 152 

XIX. Captain Cook Finds the Smallest Continent. 161 

XX. Washington, the Father of His Country. 169 


V 

















CONTENTS 


Page 


vi 

Chapter 

XXI. Napoleon, the Little Man Who Wanted to Rule 

This Big World . 184 

XXII. Lincoln, the Backwoods Boy Who Saved His Country 198 

XXIII. Stanley Sails Down a Great River in the Dark Con¬ 
tinent. 210 

XXIV. Peary Reaches the North Pole. 220 

XXV. From Ice-Land to Vine-Land. 232 

XXVI. A Name for the New World. 236 

XXVII. The Bottom of the World. 239 








GREAT DEEDS OF 
GREAT MEN 


DARIUS, THE KING OF THE WISE MEN 

Have you ever seen Persian rugs? Darius ( Da-ri'us ) 
saw them, and he was born more than twenty-four 
hundred years ago, when even grown people who lived in 
the country of the Wise Men had not seen and did not 
know so many things as some boys and girls see and know 
now. The Wise Men were the priests that served in the 
temples of Persia when Darius was king of that country. 

I said Darius was born more than twenty-four hundred 
years ago; but if you had asked me the year of his birth, 
I should probably have answered: “549 b.c.” That 
means five hundred forty-nine years before Christ was 
born. We tell when things have happened by saying 
they took place so many years before or so many years 
after the birth of Christ. Thus, we say the birthday of 
Darius was in 549 b.c., and Lincoln’s birthday was in 
1809 a.d., that is, eighteen hundred nine years after Christ 
was born. 

This world of ours was already very old when Darius 
was born. To be sure, men knew very little about it, 
except just the places where they lived. But for all 



2 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


that, great men had lived and great deeds had been done 
and forgotten even before the time of Darius. 

In order that the story of his deeds should never be 
forgotten, Darius had it carved on the side of a rock not 



Darius as Shown on the Behistun Rock 


Darius, the central figure in the group, holds in his left hand a bow. He 
raises his right hand to pronounce the doom of the captives who stand before 
him. Beneath the feet of the king lies his enemy begging the monarch’s mercy. 


far from Bagdad. It was told in pictures and wedge- 
shaped letters, which was the way the Persians wrote 
then. And there, three hundred feet above the bottom 
of the rock, people who understand that language may 
read the story today. But the place where it had been 
written was forgotten, and for hundreds of years nobody 
knew it was there. Long before this stone book was 
found, when paper books came to be printed, we learned 






















DARIUS, KING OF THE WISE MEN 3 


what we know of Darius from stories told by Greek 


historians. 

When Darius became king, the 
states that made up the kingdom of 
Persia refused to be ruled by him. 
It took six years of bloody battles 
and endless labor to punish the 
rebels and make them submit. 

As soon as all the provinces had 
acknowledged him as their leader, 
Darius, being one of the wisest 
kings that ever lived, did every¬ 
thing possible to make his people 
safe, rich, and happy. 

The young nobles who were to be 
governors in various parts of the 
kingdom were very carefully taught 
their duties by the King himself. 
Then the King frequently journey¬ 
ed through the country to see that 
they governed as he wished them 



ANTS 


Carved in rock at Persep- 
olis. The king’s right 
hand grasps a staff or scep- 


to govern. Woe to him in whose ter; his left hand, a bunch 

. r i i A *n j of flowers,. On his head is a 

province the fields were unfilled, crown Above the king is a 
the villages tumble-down and un- representation of the divin- 
tidy, or the people poor and neg- {t y w ^ ch gua y ded and 
lected. On the other hand, he ^ wo Persian nobles, one 


granted favors and gave honors to 
those who ruled well. And as he 


carrying the royal fan, the 
other the royal parasol. 


never interfered with the religion or the private lives 








4 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


of the people, they soon became hard-working and 
contented. 

To get the money necessary for himself and his court, 
Darius, like every other king, taxed the people. But he 
taxed them more justly than kings had been in the habit 
of doing, making everybody pay according to his means. 
Sometimes the taxes were paid in horses, grain, ivory, or 



slaves. The empire was so rich that, though no one 
was required to pay more than he ought to pay, the 
King had an income of 165 million dollars. 

More than this, he did what no one seems to have 
thought of before. He made good roads connecting all 
the cities of the empire. Every few miles on these high¬ 
ways, there were stations with horses saddled night and 
day ready to start the instant a messenger to or from the 
King needed oije. 









DARIUS, KING OF THE WISE MEN 5 


Shouldn’t you think all these things enough for one 
man to do ? Darius did not think so. He next sent out 
a fleet to explore India and to find an all-water way from 
that country to the Mediterranean Sea. The fleet 
crossed the Arabian Sea 
and sailed up the Red 
Sea, but, of course, it had 
to stop at the Isthmus of 
Suez. Darius, far from 
being discouraged, under¬ 
took to cut a canal across 
the isthmus. That he 
could not do, and the 
world had to wait more 
than two thousand years 
longer for the Suez Canal. 

And now this powerful 
king must have a dwell¬ 
ing worthy of the ruler of 
an empire so great and Peesian Archers 

rich. He set builders and A border o£ enameled brick from the 
artists to work, and they royal palace at Susa. Each archer carries 
fashioned a marble palace ‘\ spear ’ in “ n to 1116 b ™ °™ r , the left 

^ shoulder and the quiver on the back. 

of whose glories we may 

judge from the ruins that still exist. 

Even in that far-off time, kings who made their own 
countries rich and strong and powerful, instead of being 
satisfied with what they had, looked around to see if 
they could take any land or wealth away from their 


















6 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


neighbors. As Darius was already ruler of all that 
could be reached in Asia and Africa, he turned his 
eyes toward the land beyond the Black Sea. This was 
the level country of southern Russia, famous then, as 
now, for its great wheat fields. To be master of them 
would make him master of the only wealth in the world 
he did not already control. 

He raised an army of 700,000 men. The good roads 
he had built were very useful in leading this army to the 
Bosporus (Bos'po-rusf, which they crossed on a bridge 
of boats. But, wise as he was, Darius neglected to learn 
all that he might have learned about the country and 
the people he meant to conquer. So he lost a tenth of his 
army in the marshes and forests of this unfamiliar land, 
and returned without having added to his dominions. 

This so worked on his mind that he became unkind and 
unjust in dealing with his subjects, especially with the 
Greeks. Now, the Greeks were beginning to think people 
should govern themselves, and not be subject to the will 
of any one man, no matter how wise and good he might 
be. So, when Darius ceased to treat them fairly, they 
refused to do his bidding and resisted his efforts to force 
them to obey. With a return to the care and caution of 
his early years, he laid plans for sending against them a 
force that should end forever any attempt to rebel. 

About the middle of September, 490 b.c., six hundred 
war vessels carrying the invaders came to anchor in the 
quiet waters of a small bay on the eastern coast of Greece. 
A range of hills which sweeps inland from one side of the 


DARIUS, KING OF THE WISE MEN 7 

bay to the other, leaves a half-moon shaped plain be¬ 
tween it and the water. This is the plain of Marathon 
(Mar f a-thon ), twenty-six miles from Athens — not a very 
long march for the enemy. But the enemy never reached 
Athens. The Athenians (A-the'ni-ans ), who were on the 
far side of the plain, started on a run toward the long line 
of foes, drawn up four deep, a mile away. 



Greek Soldiers in Arms 

Painting on a Greek vase of about the time of the battle of Marathon. 


When the Persians recovered from their surprise at 
the boldness of this handful of soldiers, without horse¬ 
men or archers, rushing headlong against their own num¬ 
berless troops, there was a furious conflict. Spears 
clanged against shields, and arrows darkened the sky 
like a cloud. Soon it was the Persians that ran across 
the plain — toward their ships. The hosts of Darius 
had been put to flight! 

The victory of the Greeks at Marathon meant that 
some day in the future men should be free instead of be¬ 
ing ruled by a master. The defeat of the Persians 
meant the ruin of the great empire Darius had built. 
In the story of Alexander you can read about the end 
of it and what happened to the beautiful palace. 




PERICLES AND THE CITY BEAUTIFUL 

After his defeat at Marathon, Darias was more than 
ever determined to punish the brave Greeks for daring 
to oppose him. But just as he was ready to lead a 
second army against them, he died. His son Xerxes 
( Zerk'sez ) then became king. The new king was per¬ 
suaded to carry out his father’s plans. So, seven years 
later, the mightiest army that had ever been assembled 
swarmed into Greece. 

What could be done against such a multitude? The 
Greeks thought they had learned the answer to that 
question at Marathon. 

The Athenians and the Spartans gathered at the 
“Gate of the Hot Springs” (called Ther-mop'y-lae), a 
narrow pass between the hills and the shore, on the 
eastern coast of Greece. On came the Persians, whipped 
forward by their captains. Firm stood the Greeks, held 
in their places only by their own courage. Out leaped 
their willing spears! Back fell the invaders — to be 
whipped forward again! 

For two days they kept up this kind of warfare. Then, 
alas, a traitor showed Xerxes a path behind the pass. 
When the Greek general, Leonidas (Le-on'i-das ), learned 
this, he sent back to their homes all but fourteen hundred 
of his soldiers. Four hundred of these deserted him 
8 


PERICLES AND THE CITY BEAUTIFUL 9 


when the battle began again. Thus, only three hundred 
Spartans and seven hundred other loyal men were left to 
hold the pass. Completely surrounded by the enemy, 
without hope of winning, these brave defenders of their 
native land fought on till the last man was slain. This 
was the price they were willing to pay for the freedom 
of their country. 

But it seemed as though they had died in vain. Xerxes 
now marched toward Athens. At the news of his ap¬ 
proach, the people left the city. The men went on 



board the ships in the harbor. The women, children, 
and old people went to the country or to the near-by 
islands. When the Persians arrived, they found only a 
few guardians of the temples. These they murdered, 
and then burned the city. 

In the meantime, the Persian fleet appeared in the 
harbor. Though very much frightened when they saw 
three ships to their one, the Greeks did not run away. 
Instead, they began to fight, and ended by chasing the 
enemy out to sea. Seated on his royal throne, Xerxes 
watched the battle from the cliffs along the shore. When 










IO 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


he saw that he could not depend upon the fleet, it was 
his turn to be afraid — afraid that he might never get 
out of Greece now that he was in it. So he made up his 
mind to go home while he had the chance, and he lost no 
time in starting. The Greeks did what they could to 
hasten his departure by harassing his army and captur¬ 
ing his ships. Finally, he reached Persia much poorer, 
if no wiser, than he was when he left it. 

These events took place ten years after the battle of 
Marathon, or 480 b.c., but it was not till after many 
more years and many more battles that Greece was freed 
forever from the attacks of these would-be conquerors. 
Never again, however, did the Persians send a great 
army into that brave little country. 

During the Persian wars the Greeks learned how much 
stronger they were against a common foe when they 
stopped quarreling among themselves and acted to¬ 
gether. The need to be alert for the next move of these 
troublesome neighbors led them to form a league, or 
union. There were two leagues in fact, but I am going to 
speak of only one, the league headed by Athens. Each 
state in the league pledged itself to give, every year, a 
fixed sum of money or so many ships to be used against 
the Persians. By and by you will see for what much of 
this money was spent. 

In the course of time, several other states of Greece, 
as well as those of the league, became subject to Athens. 
In this way, what had been the Athenian League came to 
be known as the Athenian Empire. 


PERICLES AND THE CITY BEAUTIFUL n 


Meanwhile, all the members of the league continued 
to make yearly payments to Athens. So, when Pericles 
( Per'i-klez ) became its ruler, thirty-five years after 
Xerxes burned the city, Athens was very rich. 

Though their country was called an empire, the Athe¬ 
nians chose their own rulers, instead 
of having a king who held his office by 
right of birth. It sometimes happened, 
as it does in our own country, that a 
poor man, if he knew enough, was 
chosen as leader. Pericles, however, 
was a wealthy nobleman. He became 
the ruler of the Athenians because he 
was the ablest man among them. He 
was so fine to look upon, so calm and 
just and dignified, so wise and learned, 
so high-minded and courageous, that 
people called him Zeus (Zus). Zeus, 
you should know, was the chief god 
worshipped by the Greeks. 

Pericles could talk so well 
everyone who heard him believed 
What he Said and was willing to do office of General held by 
whatever he wanted done. Fortu- Pencles ' 
nately for Athens, he wanted to build, not to destroy. 
He was willing to fight when jealous cities tried to take 
the riches and power of Athens away from her. But he 
did not want his people to go out to conquer distant 
lands. He thought they should stay in their own 



Pericles 

The bust is probably a 
good copy of a portrait 
statue set up in Athens 
that during the lifetime of 
Pericles. The helmet 
possibly indicates the 



12 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


country and use all their strength and wealth to im- 
prove it. 

He wanted to make men free, not bound; to teach 
them, not to keep them in ignorance; to give them bright 
and beautiful things to see, and witty things to hear. 
Wanting to do such things as these, Pericles determined 
to make Athens the most beautiful city in the world, 
and its people the best educated and the happiest. 



The Top of the Acropolis in Athens 2000 Years Ago 
The Parthenon is the large temple on the right 


He sought out the persons who knew how to do cer¬ 
tain things better than anybody else, and set them to 
work. The builders erected noble temples and vast 
theaters. The sculptors carved perfect statues. The 
artists painted beautiful pictures, showing what the gods 
and heroes of Greece had done for her honor and glory. 
The authors wrote wonderful plays and poems, which we 
may read now, whenever we care to do so. 















PERICLES AND THE CITY BEAUTIFUL 13 


On a hill overlooking the city he caused to be built 
the “House of the Virgin” (. Par'the-non ), a temple of the 
purest white marble. For the holy place in this temple, 
the sculptor Phidias (. Fid'i-as ) shaped the most beauti¬ 
ful image of the goddess of wisdom, Athena, that the 
world has ever seen. This statue of 
the goddess was of cream-colored ivory. 

From her shoulders hung a robe of re¬ 
fined gold. Her armor flashed with the 
light of priceless gems of many colors. 

Between the temple and the broad 
flight of marble steps leading up the 
hill from the entrance, there was another 
statue of Athena, made of bronze. It 
was so large that sailors, returning from 
their long voyages, saw the golden plume 
of the helmet while they were still far 
out at sea. 

But above all, Pericles wanted the 
people to be happy. So there were 
amusing plays in the theaters, gay pro¬ 
cessions, athletic games, and public 
feasts. These, as well as the beautiful 
pictures, the numberless statues, and the stately buildings, 
were paid for out of the money I told you about a little 
while ago. 

Some persons thought Pericles did wrong to spend the 
money in this way instead of making war on the Persians. 
They succeeded in putting him out of his place at the 



Athena 

An ancient copy of 
the Athena of Phidias 







14 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


head of the nation for a short time, but the Athenians 
were soon glad enough to have him back again. 

Other states of the empire, envious of the greatness 
of Athens, found an excuse for attacking her. Then 
Pericles was obliged to give up his plans for the City 
Beautiful. He lived to direct the defense of his beloved 
city only two years after the outbreak of the war. Just 
before he died, the friends around his bedside, thinking 
he was too ill to notice them, were praising the things he 
had done for Athens. He roused himself and said: 

“You make no mention of that which is the greatest 
thing of all, that no Athenian has ever worn mourning 
because of anything I have done.” 



Greek Games — Running 
From an antique vase 




The Territory Occupied by the Greeks is Indicated by Solid Black 



(i5) 





















ALEXANDER AND HIS LITTLE ARMY TAKE A 
GREAT EMPIRE 

There lay to the north of Greece the little country of 
Macedonia (. Mas-e-dd'nia ). In this warrior nation was 
born Alexander, the boy who was to become master of 
the whole world. When I say the whole world, I mean, 
of course, such of it as was known to the people of that 
time. 

Take your map of the Eastern Hemisphere. Trace a 
line from the Danube River through the Black Sea to 
the Caspian Sea. From there draw an easterly curve 
down to the Indus River and extend it along the course 
of that river to its mouth. Continue the line across the 
Arabian Sea to the Red Sea, thence to Alexandria and 
along the African coast' to Tripoli. Join this point by 
a slant line to the Danube. This roughly outlines the 
world about which anything was known when Alexander 
was born. 

At the end of the war during which Pericles died, the 
Athenian Empire had been broken up. Then the various 
states of Greece, forgetting the lesson of the Persian wars 
and paying no attention to the dangerous neighbor on 
the north, kept up the strife to decide which one should 
govern the others. This was decided for them, about 
a hundred years after Pericles died, by Alexander’s 

16 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


17 


father, Philip, the king of Macedonia. He went down 
into Greece with his strong little army and made them all 
own him as their ruler. 

When he was a boy, Alexander the Great was fond of 
study, and read all the history and poetry he could get. 
He liked the company of 
persons older and wiser than 
himself because he learned 
from them the things he was 
eager to know. To his teach¬ 
er, Aristotle, he paid the ut¬ 
most attention and respect, 
not only while he was a boy, 
but also after he became the 
most famous man in the 
world. Indeed, Alexander is 
no more noted for his con¬ 
quests than Aristotle is for 
his wisdom, and the greatest 
thinkers still learn from him. 

Alexander was bent upon improving his body no less 
than his mind. He took an active part in the field 
sports which were a part of the training of the young men 
at his father’s court. Tracking and killing wild animals 
taught him to face danger without flinching and to bear 
heat and cold, hunger and thirst, pain and weariness 
without complaining. These sports also helped to teach 
him forethought, watchfulness, and quickness in meeting 
unexpected difficulties. He had need of all these qual- 



Alexander 


18 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

ities in after years on the long, hard marches through 
Asia. 

Here is a story that will tell you several things about 
Alexander, if you are clever enough to understand what 
they are. 



A strong and spirited horse had been sent to Philip, 
who always bought the best horses to be found. But 
Bucephalus (Bu-sef a-lus ), as he was named, was so un¬ 
manageable that Philip proposed to send him back to 
his owner. Alexander, who had been admiring the 
glossy skin, intelligent eye, and rapid movements of the 
graceful steed, was bitterly disappointed. He begged 










ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


19 


permission to try to mount it and to have it for his own 
if he succeeded. “ And what will you forfeit if you fail ? ” 
asked the king. “The full price of the horse,” answered 
his son. Philip laughed, but consented. 

Alexander went up to the unruly animal, and while 
stroking it and soothing it by the gentle tones of his voice, 
contrived to turn the horse’s head toward the sun so that 
it was no longer frightened by its own shadow. Spring¬ 
ing swiftly and lightly to the back of the beautiful crea¬ 
ture, he galloped away, and returned with the horse 
ready to obey his word or touch. After that, Alexander 
and Bucephalus were never parted so long as the good 
horse lived. When he died, Alexander, who had become 
great and powerful, named a city in his honor. 

Alexander seems to have been as proud as he was brave. 
For, when asked why he never took part in the Olympic 
games, he answered: “Because there are no king’s sons 
to compete with.” But perhaps he did not care to take 
part in what were merely games. He certainly had a very 
quick temper that gave him much trouble and sorrow 
because he did not govern it, even when he governed the 
whole world. 

As soon as Alexander came to the throne of Macedonia 
and Greece (he was only twenty years old), he prepared 
to carry out his plan of adding the Persian Empire to his 
own, thus making himself the ruler of the whole world. 

He landed in Asia with an army of 40,000 spearmen and 
horsemen. That was not very many compared with the 
millions of Persians sent into Greece a century and a half 


20 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


earlier. Nor was it very many compared with the Per¬ 
sian force then gathered on the right bank of the Granicus 
(i Gra-m'kus ), a little stream flowing into the Sea of 
Marmora. The Greeks and Macedonians marched to 
the left bank. For a while neither army did anything 
but watch the movements of the other. Presently, 
Alexander gave the order to cross the river. The Per¬ 
sians defended their position bravely at first, but gave 
way after most of theft: generals and chief men had been 
slain, many of them by Alexander himself. Those who 
were neither killed nor captured fled, so that there was 
no longer an army to hinder the forward march of the 
enemy, even if the Persians had not been too terrified 
to offer any opposition. 

Have you ever heard your elders speak of cutting the 
Gordian knot? They get the expression from an incident 
in the life of Alexander the Great. In Gordium there 
was a wagon in which, it was said, an ancient king of the 
country had been brought to the spot where the town now 
stood. The yoke was fastened to the pole of the wagon 
by a knot that no one had been able to untangle. An 
oracle had foretold that whosoever should untie the knot 
would be lord of all Asia. 

When Alexander halted in Gordium to rest his soldiers, 
he went to see this old relic, feeling sure that he was the 
one meant to unfasten the knot. But he was as puzzled 
as everybody else had been. Only, being more clever — 
or more impatient — than the others, he drew his sword 
and cut the knot in two. This was believed by Alexander 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


21 


to be quite as good as untying it. And everyone agreed 
with him, — to agree with a conqueror is somewhat 
more safe than to disagree with him. 

The king of Persia, who, like his great ancestor, was 
called Darius, had collected half a million men and now 
met Alexander at Issus, not far from the Mediterranean 



The Alexander Mosaic 


This splendid mosaic, composed of pieces of colored glass, formed the pave¬ 
ment of a Roman house at Pompeii in Italy. It represents the charge of 
Alexander (on horseback at the left) against the Persian king in his chariot, at 
the battle of Issus. 

coast. Again he was defeated. His mother, wife, and 
sisters were among those taken prisoners, but Alexander 
treated them kindly. 

He proceeded on his victorious way down the coast to 
Jerusalem. Thence he crossed to Egypt, where the 
people welcomed him as a deliverer, instead of resisting 
him as a conqueror. Near one of the mouths of the Nile 
he marked out the site of the city that still bears his 
name. Alexandria became one of the most celebrated of 



































22 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


the ancient cities. Its founder, however, never saw it, 
for within a few months he was back in Asia, and he 
never returned. 

During Alexander’s absence, Darius had summoned 
from such parts of the kingdom as he still retained, every 
soldier that could be spared. There were 1,000,000 foot¬ 
men, besides the horsemen, the scythed chariots, and — 



Scythe-Bearing Chariot 


the elephants! There were only fifteen of these huge 
beasts, but they are always spoken of because this is the 
first time they are mentioned in history as forming part of 
an army. 

Every chariot had a pole ending in a sharp point that 
extended beyond the breasts of the horses, three sword 
blades projecting from both sides of the yoke, and two 











ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


23 


scythes fastened to the hub of each wheel. This awe¬ 
inspiring host was encamped on a wide, level, treeless 
plain east of the river Tigris ( Tl'gris ). 

Alexander pushed forward, and at daybreak one morn¬ 
ing in October, four years after his first conflict in Persia, 
caught sight of the battle array of the foe. The fight 
that followed is generally called the battle of Arbela. As 
usual, the ill-trained masses of the Persian army were 
helpless before the perfectly drilled, swiftly moving units 
of the Macedonian army. They fell back all along the 
line. 

The king himself set the example of flight. Such 
of his men as did not escape with him were slain or 
captured. This victory made Alexander the real mon¬ 
arch of Persia, though he did not become the lawful one 
till after the death of Darius, who was murdered several 
months later by one of his own guard. 

You remember the marble palace Darius the Great had 
built for himself? This was at Persepolis (. Per-sep'o-lis ), 
the next stronghold on Alexander’s fine of march. Be¬ 
sides the costly buildings, there was in the city such an 
amazing store of gold and silver and silks and jewels 
that it took five thousand camels and twice as many 
mule-carts to carry it away. After this great treasure 
had been sent out of the city, Alexander set fire to the 
splendid palace. Though not entirely destroyed, its 
glory was gone forever. And with it went the realm of 
the king who had “ proclaimed himself master of man¬ 
kind from the rising to the setting sun.” 


24 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

Although Alexander wickedly destroyed Persepolis, he 
generally tried to improve a country when he had mas¬ 
tered it. He extended commerce by building harbors 
and helping these widely separated peoples to trade with 
one another. By making Greek settlements in them, he 
spread the ideas, customs, and tastes of the Greeks 
among eastern nations. 

From Persepolis, Alexander made his all-conquering 
way through the countries bordering the Caspian Sea 
eastward to the Indus. Here he learned enough of the 
mysterious land of India to want to add it to his domin¬ 
ions. He crossed the river, overcame a native chief who 
tried to stop him, and went on as far as the most eastern 
branch of the Indus. 

But now the hardy Macedonians who had followed 
him so many, many weary miles, refused to go any 
farther. His powers of persuasion had no effect on them, 
and he was obliged to turn south, following the Indus to 
its outlet. 

Having reached the sea, they turned toward the track¬ 
less desert that lay east of the Persian Gulf. There 
the heat was terrible. The lack of water was worse. 
Alexander had always taken part in the dangers and 
hardships of his men during their long marches. And 
now he walked through the blistering sand with the foot 
soldiers, setting an example of fortitude and cheerful¬ 
ness that they all admired, and imitated as best they 
could. One day, when a soldier found a little water 
which he brought to his leader in a helmet, Alexander, 


ALEXANDER THE GREAT 


25 

though parched with thirst, refused to drink it because 
he would not enjoy a relief the others could not share. 

Once beyond the desert, those that were left alive 
made their way as quickly as possible to Babylon. Here, 
in 323 b.c., Alexander was stricken with a fever from 
which he died in a few days. 

He had reigned but twelve years. In that short time 
he had raised himself to the greatest 
power ever held by one man. He 
had added to his own kingdom, be¬ 
sides hitherto unknown tracts of India, 
the territory of the Persian Empire 
with its boundless wealth and un¬ 
numbered millions of people. He had 
so touched the thoughts of men by 
his handsome person, his charming 
manners, his great generosity, his 
extensive conquests, and his good 
fortune in never having lost a battle, 
that they were disposed to worship 
him as a god. 

But Alexander lay alone — deserted 
— dead. 

Who now should hold his conquests together? There 
was not a man on earth able to do it. His governors 
and generals strove among themselves to grasp a power 
none of them was strong enough to hold. Each seized 
whatever he could defend against the others, and the 
mighty empire dropped to pieces like a house of toy 



A Soldier of 
Alexander’s Army 





26 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

blocks when the foundation is pulled from under it. 
In less than two hundred years the fragments were 
swallowed by a giant power that even then, unknown to 
the rest of the world, was growing up not a thousand 
miles to the west of Macedonia. But that belongs to 
another story. 


CAESAR BECOMES THE RULER OF THE 
CITY OF THE SEVEN HILLS 

A long time ago — nobody is certain just when — a 
pair of twin baby boys were set adrift on the river Tiber 
by a wicked uncle who wished them to be drowned. But 
they were cast on the shore by the tide, and a wolf took 
care of them, so the story goes, till they were found by a 
shepherd, who brought them up as his own 
sons. When they had grown to be men, 

Romulus (Rom'u-lus) plowed a furrow 
around the hill near which they had been 
found by the shepherd. He said he would 
found a city within the walls so marked 
out. 

Remus (. Re'mus ) jumped over the fur¬ 
row, saying: “An enemy could overleap 
your walls as easily as I do.” Romulus angrily answered, 
“And I could kill such an enemy as easily as I do you!” 
at the same time striking his brother on the head with a 
pickaxe. 

Years passed by, and the city of Rome founded on this 
hill grew so as to include six other near-by hills — mak¬ 
ing seven in all — and the whole space was surrounded 
by a high stone wall that no enemy could easily climb. 

At first the people lived in wooden huts roofed with 
straw. Each hut had a garden and a sheepfold. The 

27 



A Roman Coin 
Showing Romulus, 
Remus, and the 
Wolf. 


28 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


farmers and the shepherds wore a single woolen shirt, or 
tunic, which reached to the knees. They used tools of 
flint and bone, and clumsy dishes of earthenware. Foot 
soldiers had shields and spears. The rich soldiers rode 
on horseback. 

These old Romans were stern, stingy, and merciless. 
But they were also strong, brave, and truthful. During 
the early years they were governed by a king. Later, a 
king came to be more hateful to them than to the 
Athenians. 

All this was long before anybody outside of Italy knew 
that Rome was there. The city grew more and more 
powerful. It overcame all of Italy, and then sent its 
soldiers against the nations across the Mediterranean. 
Within two centuries after the death of Alexander it was 
ruling Spain, the northern point of Africa, and much of 
Alexander’s former empire. 

During the hundreds of years it had taken to subdue 
all these countries, this proud City of the Seven Hills 
was not governed by a king. A body of men, called the 
senate, made the laws and selected two consuls as rulers. 
But a poor man had not the same chance in Rome that 
he had in Athens to become a ruler. At the time our 
story begins, anyone who wanted to govern had to be a 
victorious general, a great orator, or a man rich enough to 
pay the senators to vote for him. 

A young Roman named Julius Caesar made up his 
mind that he would some day become a consul. So he 
set to work to make himself a good soldier, a good speaker. 


JULIUS CAESAR 


29 


and a rich man. He learned to ride and swim and to use 
his sword with great skill. He went to Greece to study, 
and when he came back he could make just as good 
speeches as anybody else. Better, in some ways, for 
they were always marked by good manners even toward 
those who disagreed with him. 

Julius Caesar was not so handsome as Alexander the 
Great. His high forehead looked higher than it was, be¬ 
cause he was beginning to be bald. 

His nose and mouth were large. His 
eyes were black and bright. We 
would probably not think him tall, 
but he looked strong and healthy. 

He had a cool temper and he was 
always polite, no matter how much 
annoyed he might be. He was not 
afraid of anything — not even of 
working too hard. 

Though it was a very long while 
from the founding of Rome to the 
time when Caesar was a young man, 
the city had never been made beau¬ 
tiful like Athens. But it had changed Julius Caesar 
very much during those years. In¬ 
stead of one room, the houses of the rich had many 
— dining-rooms, bed-rooms, bath-rooms, book-rooms. 
Indeed, book-rooms were so fashionable that wealthy 
persons who could not read a word had them. In the 
dining-rooms, around three sides of the table, there were 






30 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


couches big enough to hold three persons. Each person 
lay almost flat on his breast, leaning on his left elbow 
and having his right hand free to help himself to food. 
There were no stoves. When more heat than the sun 
supplied was wanted, charcoal was burned in a metal 
basin. The cooking was done in the kitchen over the 
glowing coals on an open platform. 

Builders had copied parts of the temples of Greece and 
added them to their own, and in this way had made a 
strange, new style of building. Besides the temples there 
were theaters and public baths. But the center of in¬ 
terest was the market place, or Forum, as it was called. 
Here the people gathered to gossip with one another or to 
hear what Caesar and other noted men had to say about 
the news of the day. 

Rome had been able to make itself so powerful because 
of the strict habits and simple life of the people in the 
past. But now the people, too, were changed. They 
came to think it a merit to be cruel, greedy, and untruth¬ 
ful. They changed the athletic games they had learned 
from the Greeks into real fights between men trained for 
no other purpose, or between men and wild beasts. A 
few of the best Romans, however, learned history, poetry, 
and sculpture from the wise Greeks, and they later passed 
this knowledge on to the countries conquered by Rome. 

With slaves to do their work for them, and with more 
money than they could spend wisely, the rich became 
more and more idle and worthless. They even gave up 
going to war and hired men to do their fighting for them. 


JULIUS CAESAR 





Things grew worse and worse. Soldiers became armed 
robbers and sailors became pirates. The pirates cut off 
food sent to the city from surrounding countries. Subject 
nations threatened to rebel. Armed bands of slaves rose 
against their masters, and altogether it looked as though 
there would be nothing left to Rome but its seven hills. 

Things had become so bad that Caesar and two of his 
friends, Pompey and Crassus, agreed among themselves 
to take possession of 
the government and 
do what they could 
to restore order. 

Crassus was to take 
Care of Asia, Pompey A Slave’s Collar 

of Spain, and Caesar A runaway slave, if captured, was sometimes 
r t-< n • v compelled to wear a metal collar riveted about 

of France, which was hfe P eck Qne of these coUars> still preserved at 
then called Gaul. Rome, bears the inscription: “I am the slave of 
Before Caesar went master Scholasticus, a gentleman of impor¬ 
tance. Hold me, lest I flee from home.” 

to Gaul, the Germans 

east of the Rhine, finding their pastures too small for their 
herds, had crossed the river and taken what land they 
wanted in Gaul. The dwellers in the Alps had looked down 
for generations from the slopes of their snow-topped hills 
into the sunny plains of Italy. No doubt they often 
wondered why they should work so hard to cultivate 
their stony garden patches when just below them lay the 
fertile fields of their neighbors. However that may be, 
the whole tribe, led by the army, had started to leave 
their mountain homes for the fruitful valleys beyond. 



32 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


If they were not kept out of Italy, and if the Germans 
were not driven out of Gaul, there would be no peace or 
safety for Rome. 

So Caesar set to work to get an army together and to 


train the new men in the use 
of their weapons. In a Roman 
army there were several kinds 
of soldiers with different kinds of 
weapons. As a rule, the footmen 
wore a helmet and a breastplate. 
Each carried a round or an ob¬ 
long shield, a javelin for throw¬ 
ing or a spear for thrusting, and 
a short, broad, two-edged sword. 

Having gathered his army, 
Caesar did not wait for the 
wanderers but boldly crossed 
A Roman Soldier into their own country, drove 

them back and > to make sure 
shoulder-pieces, a metal-plated that they stayed, followed them 
belt, and a sword hanging from t [\\ fog provisions gave Out. 
a strap thrown over the left _ TrI .. . 

shoulder. His left hand holds a Whlle he was trying to get SUp- 
large shield, his right, a heavy plies, they turned and attacked 

Javelm ' his camp. Though they fought 

bravely, they were no match for the troops of Caesar. 
They were beaten, and those that were left went back 
to their old homes; and Switzerland, too, became a 
Roman province. 

Caesar now went forward to push the Germans back 







The Forum at Rome 


* 



33 










































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































34 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


across the Rhine. The Germans lived in villages without 
walls. They had no furniture. They slept on straw or 
in the grass. When they were not at war, they were 
hunting or fishing. The men were big and strong and 
fierce, with shaggy hair and rough beards. The hairy 
hides of cattle, horns and all, which they wore for gar¬ 
ments made them look still more dreadful. 

The Roman soldiers had heard what terrible warriors 
the Germans were and, as they drew near to their camp, 
they became so scared that even some of the officers wept 
out of sheer fright. Caesar reminded them of the victories 
they had already won; but that did not bring back their 
courage. Then he said, “If no one else will follow me, 
I will go on with the tenth legion alone. On that legion, 
at least, I can depend.” This made the tenth legion very 
glad and proud, and it made the other legions more 
ashamed of their fear than afraid of the foe. They all 
marched forward, attacked the barbarian army and 
utterly destroyed it; and the Germans were forced back 
into their own land. 

Not all of Gaul had been conquered by the Romans at 
the time the Germans were driven out of it. The Gauls 
were tall and blue-eyed. They had long, flaxen hair, 
sometimes dyed a bright red, gathered up and tied close 
to the crowns of their heads from which it hung down 
like a horse’s tail. When they were not at war, they 
raised grain and tended their flocks. The women wore 
woolen clothing which they dyed in gay colors. The 
Gauls lived in villages surrounded by low walls made of 


JULIUS CAESAR 


35 


brush and mud. The walls served to keep out the wild 
beasts which roamed the dense forests that covered most 
of the country at that time. When going into battle, 
instead of covering themselves with armor as the Romans 
did, they stripped themselves nearly naked. 

The Gauls, having no more liking for the Romans than 
for the Germans, tried to get rid of them. Battle after 
battle was fought, but in the end all Gaul was added to 
the land owned by the seven-hilled city. As Caesar ruled 
them wisely and kindly, the people soon learned the lan¬ 
guage, manners, and dress of their conquerors. They 
also learned to build roads and bridges, to raise olives and 
grapes, and to use better weapons in warfare. So apt 
were they that, in the course of time, many of them be¬ 
came better workmen, builders, and scholars than their 
teachers had been. 

While Caesar was fighting in Gaul, his friend Pompey 
had become his enemy. Pompey tried to have Caesar put 
out of his own army and to hinder him from holding any 
office at Rome. Caesar would not allow him to do that. 
He assembled his soldiers and asked if they would help 
him. They promised to follow him no matter where he 
led. 

But to lead them toward Rome was to make war on 
Rome. So Caesar stood on the bank of the Rubicon 
(Ru'bi-con), a tiny river between his province and Italy, 
and wondered what it was best to do. Suddenly he 
urged his charger into the water, shouted to the men to 
follow, and passed to the other side. And that is why 


36 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


people say, when they have finally decided to do some¬ 
thing they want to do, that they have crossed the Rubicon. 

Caesar reached Rome. Pompey fled to Asia. Caesar 
followed. Pompey retreated to Egypt. Again Caesar 
followed. The king of Egypt, thinking to win Caesar’s 
favor, had Pompey’s head cut off and sent it to Caesar 
when he arrived in Alexandria. Such a sight made 


Caesar sad, not glad. 
Then the Egyptian 
king was frightened 
and tried to destroy 
Caesar; but he, too, 
was defeated and 
Caesar became mas¬ 
ter of Egypt. 



A Roman Coin with the Head oe 
Julius Caesar 


Now his wars were ended. The City of the Seven 
Hills ruled the world from east to west, and Julius Caesar 
went home to be the greatest man in that city. 

The Roman citizens could not do enough to show how 
much they honored Caesar. Four triumphs were cele¬ 
brated for him. Medals and coins were made with his 
image on them. A month of the year was named after 
him. A golden wreath of bay leaves was given to him to 
wear the rest of his life, and a golden chair to sit in. They 
even offered to crown him king, but he refused that title. 

Caesar used his knowledge and power to improve the 
lives of the people. He had laws passed which saved 
men who were in debt from becoming slaves to those 
from whom they had borrowed. He made those who 



JULIUS CAESAR 


37 


were poor because they were idle, go to the country and 
work on farms. He encouraged the rich to use some of 
their money to buy land instead of using it to buy rich 
food, gay clothing, and showy ornaments for themselves. 
Then he ordered that one-third of the laborers on these 
lands should be paid workers and not slaves. And he 
made dishonest governors stop robbing the people in 
their provinces. 

But Caesar had not long to enjoy his honors or to 
make wise laws. His greatness made mean-spirited 
men envy him. Several of them banded together and 
planned to kill him in the hall of the senate. On the day 
fixed for the murder, he did not feel well and his wife 
begged him not to go out. To please her, he stayed at 
home. The murderers, with their daggers hidden under 
their togas, were waiting in the hall. 

When it was plain to them that Caesar would not 
appear that day, they sent one of his friends to whom he 
could never say no, to urge him to come to the senate 
at once. In spite of several warnings he went, and took 
his seat in the golden chair. The wicked group gathered 
around him, telling stories and asking favors till, at a 
given signal, one of them stabbed him in the neck. At 
that he stood up. Then all the others struck him with 
their daggers, and he fell. Thus the proud City of the 
Seven Hills lost her chief possession — the greatest man 
in the world. 



( 3 «) 












ALARIC, WHO SACKED A CITY BUT SPARED 
ITS CHURCHES 


Suppose you could have gone to sleep in Rome after 
having heard Mark Antony’s famous speech at Caesar’s 
funeral, and then suppose you could have awakened four 
hundred years later. How different everything would 
have seemed! Or, suppose you had lived all that time. 
What changes you would have seen 
take place! Of course, no one could 
sleep so long and wake up that 
way, nor live so long, but history 
helps us to know what occurred 
and to see how Rome changed, 
almost as if such things were pos¬ 
sible. 

From history we learn that the 
houses of the wealthy were very 
large. Some of them were six 
stories high and some of them had 
more than fifty rooms. There 
were large libraries filled with 
books — written, not printed. Printing was not invented 
till a thousand years later. Among the books were 
many Roman histories, poems, and stories, as well as 
the copies of Greek books. 



Roman Reading a Book 
These books were written 
on rolls of paper or papyrus; 
a roll for a single book was 
sometimes 150 feet long. 


39 













40 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


There were splendid temples, churches, and palaces, 
with beautiful pictures painted on the walls and ceilings. 
Magnificent arches, in honor of the great deeds of the 
great Romans, spanned the principal streets. A marble 
column as high as a church steeple had a band of sculp¬ 
tured stories round it from the bottom to the top. Stat¬ 
ues of gods and goddesses and heroes were everywhere. 



The Circus Maximus at Rome 


There was a race course big enough to seat six times 
as many men as there were in Alexander’s army. Around 
this course, the drivers of four-horse chariots madly 
raced one another. 

There was a theater in which the central space, or arena, 
was big enough to be turned into a lake on which real 
ships fought real battles. Once, large forest trees were 
dug up by the roots and transplanted in the arena. 








ALARIC, THE GOTH 


4i 


Lions and leopards and other wild animals were turned 
loose into this imitation forest and then hunted and killed 
for the entertainment of the people. Suppose a roaring 
lion, savage with pain, had jumped up among those 
cruel people on the benches! Ah, but he could not. 



Interior of the Colosseum 
Showing the arena 


There was a high iron fence around the arena to prevent 
just that. 

Surrounding the city on every side was a strong new 
wall. 

From history we learn that strange things had taken 
place outside of Rome, also. You remember the trouble 
Caesar had with the Germans in Gaul. The Goths, a 
tribe belonging to the same race, lived north of the 









42 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Danube. Suddenly, countless thousands of Huns came 
out from the unknown lands of Asia into the country of 
the Goths, the women and children in clumsy wagons, 
the warriors marching ahead. They were so short and 
stout, with such yellow skins, flat noses, little eyes, and 
high cheek bones, that the Goths thought they were 



demons. The Goths ran away from them almost as 
much on that account as on account of their fierce attacks. 
The Roman emperor gave the Goths permission to cross 
the Danube and settle in the Roman province on the 
south bank. 

After they had lived there for some time, they became 
restless, and greedy for more land. As they always 
preferred fighting to farming, and robbing to trading, 


ALARIC, THE GOTH 


43 


they looked with longing eyes toward the harvests and 
riches of Greece. But who should lead them into that 
promising field? Why, the tall, light-haired, blue-eyed 
young warrior, Alaric (. Al'ar-ic ), of course. When this 
was decided, they placed him on a brazen shield, and, 
with shouts of joy, raised him high above their heads, as 
a sign that hereafter he was their chief. The call to 



Alaric at Athens 


arms ran through the province. Men dropped the plow 
and seized the spear. Again a great host poured into 
Greece. 

Leonidas and his brave Spartans had been dead many 
centuries. But it is a wonder their ghosts did not rise to 
shame the Greeks posted at the “ Gate of the Hot Springs ” 
to keep the Goths from passing, for they retreated with¬ 
out a blow. The whole country was overrun by the 













44 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


barbarians, and the Greeks made no attempt to defend 
themselves. What could not be carried away was de¬ 
stroyed. 

Alaric, however, was much wiser than his men and 
tried to learn all he could from the people he conquered. 
At Athens, the governor invited him into the city, and 
showed him how to use a bath tub, and gave him a ban¬ 
quet. This so pleased the chief that he would not per¬ 
mit his followers to harm the city. But he would not 
leave Greece till the emperor had given him another 
province. 

Alaric knew there were other countries besides Greece, 
richer and more desirable to live in than his own. He 
saw no reason why his people should not settle in the best 
country they could find. But he also knew that the 
inhabitants of the chosen country would not be likely to 
give it up for the asking. So this clever barbarian used 
his knowledge and his power to get the best weapons to 
be had, with which to supply his army. When he was 
ready, he entered Italy as the land of his choice. 

Now, there were many Germans in the Roman army, 
and it was commanded by a German general who was 
just as brave as Alaric, and better trained in making war. 
Twice he drove Alaric out of Italy. Then some jealous 
creature whispered into the emperor’s ear that this 
brave general was plotting to take the throne for himself. 
The foolish emperor listened, and ordered the death of the 
only man able to save Rome from the barbarians. 

Alaric hurried to the City of the Seven Hills and pitched 


ALARIC, THE GOTH 


45 


his tents outside the gates that had not been opened to an 
enemy for eight hundred years. Would they be opened 
to Alaric? Not yet. The citizens paid him an enormous 
sum to go away. The next year he camped beneath the 
walls again. This time, as the price of peace he would 
take nothing less than whole provinces in which to settle 
his countrymen. The Romans promised to give them to 
him. But no sooner was he out of sight than they forgot 



Goths on the March 

their promise. Back came the Goths for the third time. 
Alaric would take neither promise nor payment now. 
If the citizens would not fight, they should be starved. 

Inside the walls were many barbarian slaves, more 
friendly to the enemy without than to the masters within. 
At midnight the joyful blast of a trumpet told the 
Romans that the gates had been opened to the Goths. 
The slaves joined Alaric’s men and repaid the unjust 
masters with some of the same kind of suffering they had 
inflicted. The houses were robbed and burned, the 
people murdered, the beautiful temples and palaces 


46 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


ruined. But Alaric had forbidden his troops to touch 
the churches or anyone who might seek safety in them. 
Barbarian though he was, he set an example that some 
modern commanders have failed to follow. 

The Romans must have been saddened to see the costly 
furniture, the Persian rugs, the robes of purple silk, and 
the gold and silver dishes that had escaped the flames, 
piled into the two-wheeled carts of the victors and sent 
out of the city. But that was nothing to their grief 
and anger at being sold into slavery, as many of them 
were. 

The Goths were no lovers of city life, and when they 
had worked off their rage against the Romans, they moved 
southward. They had not gone far when Alaric died. 
To make sure that no Roman should ever find his body, 
they forced their prisoners to turn a river from its course, 
and in the river bed thus laid bare, to dig a grave. Into 
the grave so strangely placed, they put Alaric with all his 
armor on, and piled around him great heaps of the gold 
and silver treasure they had brought from the city 
whose churches he had spared. Then they let the water 
back into the channel. When this was done, they killed 
all the workmen, so that none might tell where the chief 
of the Goths lay buried. 

The brother-in-law of this mighty chieftain led his 
people out of Italy into the south of Gaul, where they 
ruled the land till Clovis came to Paris. 


CLOVIS COMES TO PARIS 


When Caesar was winning Gaul for Rome, one of the 
places he took was a small village built of reeds and 
rushes on a swampy island in the middle of a river. Its 
name, in our language, was Mud- 
town. Since that time the wretch¬ 
ed little village has grown into the 
beautiful capital of France. 

It was a long while after Caesar 
had driven the German tribes out 
of Gaul before they came back. 

But, as they became less and less 
afraid of the Roman governors, 
they helped themselves to larger 
and larger slices of the land along 
the west bank of the Rhine. The 
people of one of these tribes called 
themselves Franks. And this is 
the story of a Frank who, five 
hundred years after they had won 
it, took back from the Romans 
not only. Paris but everything else 
they had in Gaul, and kept it. 

Clovis, the Frank I am going to tell you about, was 
only fifteen years old when he became the chief of his 
47 



A Frankish Warrior 


48 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


tribe. He must have already shown himself to be brave 
or he would never have been chosen chief. The next 
thing we hear about him is that he has conquered all 
northern Gaul, and has made the palace of the Roman 
governor his own home. 

At about this same time Clovis heard of a princess 
whose wicked uncle, the king of a neighboring province, 
had murdered her father and driven her from home. 
Clovis thought he should like to marry the princess. 
But before making up his mind, he sent a trusty messen¬ 
ger to the town where the maiden lived to see if she were 
really as good and wise and beautiful as she was reported 
to be. As soon as the messenger saw her he was sure of 
her fitness to be the bride of a king. So he told the 
princess that Clovis wished to make her his wife, and 
showed her a ring that proved his words true. 

Clotilda — that was the name of the princess — was 
delighted with the thought of being Queen of the Franks. 
She was happier yet to have such a chance to get out 
of the reach of her bad old uncle, and readily agreed to 
go with the messenger. They started as soon as possi¬ 
ble, but not before the uncle had been told what was 
going on. 

He sent a company of soldiers with orders to make all 
speed and fetch her back. Away galloped Clotilda. 
Fast behind her galloped the soldiers. Though Clotilda 
was in the lead, she had a hard race to reach the border 
of the country first. There she found Clovis waiting for 
her. If he had not been there, or if the soldiers had 


CLOVIS COMES TO PARIS 


49 


caught Clotilda, this would have been a different story, 
or, maybe, no story at all. 

Clotilda was a Christian but Clovis was not. It made 
her very sad to see him worship idols. She begged him 
every day to turn from them and pray to her God. But 
he said, “My gods help me to win battles, but your God 
does nothing for me.” 

When his first son was born, he 
let Clotilda have the child bap¬ 
tized. The little prince was only 
a few months old, when he died. 

Clovis was very angry and blamed 
Clotilda, telling her that the boy 
would have lived if he had not; 
been baptized. When the second 
son was born, his father did not 
want him to be baptized, but to 
please Clotilda he finally consent¬ 
ed. This baby lived. Still Clovis 
would not become a Christian. 

One day Clovis hung his battle axe and sword on his 
belt, took his lance and shield, and made ready to go 
against a fierce German tribe that wanted to settle on his 
lands. When he said good bye to the Queen and the 
young prince, he must have looked very handsome. He 
had deep blue eyes, fair skin, a long drooping moustache, 
and golden hair that hung over his breast in two heavy 
braids reaching to his waist. 

The Germans fought stubbornly and were getting the 



Clovis 

Based on an old French print 


5o 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


better of the Franks, do what they could. In the thick 
of one of the worst battles, Clovis suddenly remembered 
the God of Clotilda. He prayed to Him, promising: 
“If Thou wilt give me victory, I will believe in Thee.” 
That day Clovis beat the Germans so badly that they ran 
away and never came back again. 

Clovis kept his promise and was baptized, to the great 
joy of Clotilda. It was after this that they came to 
Paris, where they lived the rest of their lives. When they 
died, they were buried in a beautiful church built soon 
after Clovis became a Christian. 

As soon as they were settled in their new home, Clovis 
thought it high time to punish Clotilda’s wicked uncle, 
and he declared war against him. Clovis intended to 
treat him as badly as the uncle had treated Clotilda and 
her father. But he only succeeded in making the cruel 
king pay a large sum of money to keep his lands, for he 
never captured him. 

You will remember that the followers of Alaric ended 
their wanderings in the southern part of Gaul. No 
sooner was the war against Clotilda’s uncle settled than 
the king of the Franks set out to convert the Goths to his 
way of thinking about religion. Whether or not he 
succeeded, I cannot say, but he certainly made their 
lands a part of his kingdom, and himself their king. 

We remember Clovis and tell his story because he 
joined all the people of Gaul into the nation we call 
France, and made it a Christian country. 


CHARLEMAGNE, THE KING WHO HAD TWO 
CROWNS TO WEAR 

The great grandsons of Clovis were so lazy and good- 
for-nothing that they were called the Sluggard Kings. 
Each grew more idle and useless than the one before him. 
Finally, everything that the king should have done was 
done by the Mayor of the Palace. One of these mayors 
thought that the man who ruled should also wear the 
crown. So he made himself king. He was the father of 
Charlemagne ( Char'le-man ). Charlemagne means Charles 
the Great. 

Charlemagne was so bold that he would hunt the wild 
boar alone, so strong that he could overthrow a horse 
and its rider with one blow of his fist. He could straighten 
out four horseshoes laid one on top of the other as easily 
as you could bend a wire. With one hand he could lift 
to the level of his head a man in full armor. But Char¬ 
lemagne would not use his strength to hurt anyone who 
did not deserve to be hurt. 

He liked to be kind to those who obeyed him. He 
was so fond of his children that when his daughters had 
grown up he did not want them to marry, because he 
could not bear to have them leave him. 

Though he was constantly at war, Charlemagne found 
time to read and study. He invited all the learned men 
51 


52 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


he heard of to come to his palace. He had two schools 
there, and several in other parts of his kingdom, which 
he often visited. On one of these visits he sharply 
scolded the sons of the chief men because they did not 
work so hard nor learn so much as the sons of the common 
people. 

He divided the country into districts and sent men, to 
whom he gave the title of count, to govern them. He 
sent messengers to see that the districts were properly 
cared for, and to tell him all they learned on their jour¬ 
neys. If a count was dishonest or unjust, you may be 
sure he was severely punished. Do you know of another 
king who did something like this ? 

He built roads and bridges. He made the people in 
all parts of the country use the same kind of money, 
weights, and measures. I have heard that our own foot- 
rule is of that length because Charlemagne’s foot was just 
that long. It is divided into twelve equal parts because 
the width of his thumb fitted into the length of his foot 
just twelve times. I do not know whether this is true or 
not, but it could very well be. 

The Franks, as you read in the story of Clovis, were 
Christians. The German tribes to the east of them were 
not. They burned the priests sent to teach them, as well 
as the churches they built. The Saxons were the most 
cruel and persistent in their attacks, and Charlemagne 
resolved to punish them. It took him thirty years to do 
it, but at the end of that time Saxony was a part of his 
empire. 


CHARLEMAGNE 


53 


The war with the Saxons had just begun when the Pope 
of Rome called on Charlemagne to help him against the 



Charlemagne 

After the painting by Diirer (1410) 


Lombards of northern Italy, with whom he had quar¬ 
relled. Charlemagne drove the king out of that country 
and was crowned king himself. In this way, he won the 



54 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


first of the two crowns he was to wear. It was known 
as the iron crown of Lombardy. It was so called, though 
it was really a golden crown, because it had a small inner 
circle made of iron. 

Tribes of Huns like those that drove the Goths across 
the Danube began to come into the country, killing the 
farmers and the townsmen and taking their lands and 
homes. Charlemagne gathered his armies, marched into 
the land of the Huns, and defeated their army. One of 
his generals destroyed their capital. In the end, the 
Huns, too, became his subjects. 

After the victory over the Huns, he was master of 
nearly all of what had been the western half of Caesar’s 
kingdom. But there had been no Roman emperor in the 
west for three hundred years. Men began to think that 
the king who really governed this land should be the 
emperor. 

In the autumn of 800 a.d., Charlemagne went to Rome 
to visit the Pope. On Christmas Day of that year, he 
attended mass in St. Peter’s Church. 

The church was crowded. It was but dimly lighted by 
the three thousand candles set in three silver rings hang¬ 
ing from the center of the arch before the altar. Be¬ 
neath the arch, the golden shrine of Saint Peter sparkled 
with rare gems. The Pope in' his gold-embroidered robe 
stood before the altar. The King in his purple gown 
knelt before the shrine. As he rose from his knees, the 
Pope set upon his head a crown of gold all a-shimmer 
with precious stones, and hailed him “ Charles, the great 


CHARLEMAGNE 


55 

and peace-giving Emperor.” In this fashion Charle¬ 
magne received his second crown. 

Charles the Great had made friends with the rulers of 
other countries, and now they sent him good wishes and 



Coronation of Charlemagne 
After the fresco in H6tel de Ville, Aix-la-Chapelle 


costly presents. Among these friendly rulers was Haroun 
al Raschid, the caliph of Bagdad and, long years after, 
the hero of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. The 
Caliph sent the Emperor an elephant, and a very remark¬ 
able clock. There were twelve windows around the top 








56 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

of the clock. Each hour one of the windows opehed, a 
horseman came out, and the window closed. When the 
hour had struck, the window again opened, and the 
horseman returned. 

Charlemagne is called great because of the hard things 
he did. He joined many different peoples into one big 
nation, all having the same laws. He guarded the rivers 
and highways so that merchants could travel to trade 
with one another without fear of robbers. Then he 
held great fairs where they came to buy and sell. At 
these fairs people in one part of the nation came to 
know those in other parts. In this way they became 
friendly, and did not care so much to make war on one 
another. 

Although Charlemagne did so much to improve the 
lives of his people, the richest persons in his kingdom 
were not so well off as most poor persons are now. There 
was no window-glass in the houses and no lights either 
inside or outside of them at night. The greatest nobles 
were lucky if they had two beds in their big palaces. 

Charles the Great lived to be seventy years old. When 
he was buried, he was seated on a golden throne, dressed 
in his royal robes, with a crown on his head. His sword 
stood by his side and an open Bible lay on his knees. 
Some persons think this tale of his burial is not all true; 
but you may believe as much of it as you like. 


ALFRED, WHO BUILT THE FIRST 
ENGLISH NAVY 

When Alaric was threatening to destroy Rome, the 
Roman army in England was called home to defend that 
city. This left the Britons, as the people of England 
were then called, with no one to keep their enemies out 
of the island. And so it happened that some Saxons, of 



Map Showing by Shading the Lands where the Danes Lived 


the very same heathen race that later gave Charlemagne 
so much trouble, sailed over to England. They killed 
or made slaves of all the Britons they could capture. 
They never conquered the hill tribes in the northern and 
western parts of the island, and the descendants of those 
Britons are living there yet. 

Besides the Saxons, other tribes had settled in Eng¬ 
land from time to time. Each tribe had a tiny kingdom 
57 







58 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

and a chief of its own. The Saxon tribe was larger and 
stronger than any other. 

Egbert, a Saxon king who had lived with Charlemagne 
several years, tried to persuade all the tribes to belong to 
one big nation with a single ruler, as was the case in 
France. It would have been well if they had listened to 
him. For more Germans, moving on from the east to 



A Ship of the Danes 


This ship, which probably dates from about 900 a.d.; was found in 1880 in 
a burial mound in Norway. It is 78 feet long and has seats for sixteen pairs of 
rowers, a mast for a single sail, and a rudder on the right or starboard side. 
The gunwale was decorated with a series of shields, painted alternately black 
and gold. 


the west, soon overran England in great numbers. The 
English called them Danes. 

The Danes were sea rovers. No matter how wild the 
tempest, no matter how high the waves, away they dashed 
in their light, low barks, and landed where they were 
least expected. Under cover of the mist or the storm or 
the dark of the night they would steal quietly up to a 
village, a church, or a convent. Then with loud shouts 
and savage laughter, they would begin to rob, kill, and 



ALFRED THE GREAT 


59 



burn. Before the natives could recover from their fright, 
the thieves were away on the 
rough sea with their plunder. 

And nobody seemed able to catch 
them, or to keep them out of the 
island. 

By the time Egbert’s grand¬ 
son, Alfred, became king, many 
Danes had made their homes in 
England. They did not treat 
the English any better on that 
account, however. Most of the 
tribes yielded to these robbers. 

Those led by Alfred did not. 

Every time the Danes tried to 
burn the houses or steal the cattle 
and the crops of his followers, 

Alfred fought them oh. He built 
ships and actually won a sea-fight 
against those skilful pirates. 

But Alfred did not have vessels 
enough to keep the Danes away. 

His army was no match for the Alfred the Great 
hundreds of them that landed on This statue > set up at Win- 

every shore. He was defeated was dedicated in 1901 on the 
in a great battle and lost most thousandth anniversary of his 
of his men. Those that were death * 
left hid with him in a swampy forest where the only 
dwellings were the scattered huts of the cowherds. 







6o 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Alfred spent several days in one of these huts. He 
would sit by the fire thinking and planning what he 
should do to win and keep his country from those bold 
outsiders. 

The busy housewife thought he was merely idle, and 
that he ought to go to work as her husband did. She 



King Alfred Allows the Cakes to Burn 


was determined he should do something. One evening 
she told him to watch and, when they were ready, to turn 
the cakes she was baking for supper, while she went on an 
errand. The king, busy with his thoughts, forgot the 
woman and his supper. When the cowherd’s wife came 
back, there lay the cakes burned to a crisp. She was 
very angry and spoke sharply to Alfred, saying, “It’s a 
pity you could not at least turn a few cakes; you are 



ALFRED THE GREAT 


61 


ready enough to eat them when they are done.” Do 
you suppose she ever found out that he was the king? 

In order to learn how many there were in the enemy’s 
army, he dressed himself like a traveling musician and 
entered their camp. There he sang songs and told stories, 
all the time paying attention to everything that went on. 
When he returned, he knew enough to enable him to 
surprise and capture the camp the next spring. 

Alfred could not drive them from the country, but 
when the Danes saw that they could not beat him, they 
were glad to agree to stay in the north and east of Eng¬ 
land and leave the south and west for him. 

Though now free from war, the country was in a 
pitiable condition. The king began at once to improve it. 

To keep out other enemies that might come by sea, 
he built forts along the coast. Better yet, he built more 
boats — a new kind of ship made after a pattern of his 
own. They were twice as long as the Danish vessels, 
swifter and steadier. Some of them had as many as 
sixty oars. I do not believe he had more than a hundred 
ships when they were all done, but the sturdy sailors of 
this first English navy at last taught all sea-going folks to 
keep at a safe distance from England. 

The king also built churches and convents. He in¬ 
vited learned men to come to England to teach him and 
the children of the court. 

Even when a very young boy Alfred was fond of books 
and study. His mother showed him and his brothers a 
book of poems and said, “I will give this book to the one 


62 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


of you who first learns to read it.” Alfred took the book 
to his teacher. In a few days he brought it back, repeated 
the poems to his mother, and received the book as his 
own. 

But it was not the kind of book you read. Nobody, 
even then, knew how to print. Alfred’s book was written 
on sheepskin which, when prepared to be written on, 
was called parchment. Many of the initial letters were 
beautifully colored in red, blue, and gold. The large 
initials also had fanciful lines that sometimes formed 
pictures of imaginary beasts or birds or persons, twined 
in and out of them. 

Now that he was king, Alfred ordered that all free boys 
should learn to read English. But how could they, when 
the only books to be had were written in Latin? Busy 
as he was, the king took time to change some of these 
books from the Latin into the English language. You 
would find it no harder, though, to read Latin than you 
would to read the English of King Alfred’s time. 

When men went to law about anything, King Alfred 
made his judges decide in favor of the man who was 
right, whether the man was rich and could give valuable 
presents to the judge, or poor and could give nothing at 
all. If a judge decided unjustly, Alfred asked him if he 
had done so out of greed or fear, or because he did not 
know any better. If the judge confessed that he knew 
no better, the king told him he must either give up his 
office or begin at once to study everything he needed to 
learn in order to be a better judge. 


ALFRED THE GREAT 


63 


It would seem as though there were no clocks in Eng¬ 
land in those days. For this is the way Alfred made 
sure he would have some time for all the things he wanted 
to do. He caused his servants to make six candles of 



Alfred Receives his Book 


equal weight. Each candle was twelve inches long. 
These six candles, burning one after the other, lasted 
twenty-four hours, unless the wind blew, in which case 
they were blown out. To prevent such accidents, the 
king took pieces of white ox-horn, scraped them very 









64 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


thin, and set them in a wooden frame. Inside the 
framework he put the candle, which, thus shielded from 
the wind, burned steadily. 

Alfred was not only a great king but a good man. He 
was kind and unselfish. He never made war merely for 
the sake of earning glory for himself. And he never used 
his power as the ruler of the nation to make himself rich. 

The people, seeing how wise and good their king was, 
and how hard he worked and studied, tried to be like him. 
So they became rich and happy and powerful, instead of 
poor and weak and wretched as they had been before 
Alfred the Great saved England from the Danes. 


WILLIAM OF NORMANDY, WHO CONQUERED 
A COUNTRY BUT NOT ITS LANGUAGE 

As you know, Alfred the Great forced the Danes to 
leave England at peace. Unfortunately, the rulers that 
came after him did not know how to govern their own 
people well nor how to 
keep the tribes of their 
enemies from pushing for¬ 
ward. 

Meanwhile, the Danes 
increased in numbers and 
power. Not more than a 
century after the death of 
the great Alfred, they 
drove the English king out 
of the country and put one 
of their own chiefs on the 
throne. The English king 
went to France, where his 
son Edward had as a friend 

William the Conqueror 

and companion, William, After an old coin 

the Duke of Normandy. 

After Edward had grown up he was called back to Eng¬ 
land to be its ruler. Before leaving France, he promised 
Duke William to make him the next king of England. 
Edward ought to have known that he could not keep 

65 



66 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


such a promise, because the English people chose their 
own kings. And when Edward died, they chose the 
English Harold, not the Norman William. 

Strange to say, Harold had been shipwrecked on the 
coast of France several years before, and he had fallen 
into the hands of the Duke. Before Harold was set free, 
he was obliged to promise that he would help to make the 
Duke of Normandy the King of England when Edward 



The Normans Crossing the English Channel 
From the Bayeux Tapestry, embroidered in the time of William the Conqueror 


died. Consequently, William was very angry when he 
heard of Harold’s election and declared he would take 
the kingdom away from him. 

The duke called for carpenters and shipbuilders. Then 
there was such a carrying of wood and sawing of planks, 
and setting up of masts, and spreading of sails as had 
never been seen in Normandy. As soon as the ships 
were ready, he called for knights, and bowmen, and 
laborers, and horses, and sent them on board. Then 
away they all sailed for England. 








WILLIAM THE CONQUERER 


67 


As they were landing on the other side of the channel, 
William stumbled and fell, to the great distress of his men. 
They thought it a sign of bad luck. But the duke 
quickly sprang to his feet and cried out, “I have seized 
the soil of England with my two hands and I will never 
give it up.” That brought 
the soldiers’ courage back 
to them. 

There was no one to 
hinder their landing be¬ 
cause Harold was in the 
north of England fighting 
the Danes that his own 
brother had invited to 
come over. He defeated 
them, and then hurried to 
the south to drive the 
Normans back to their 
own country. 

The Normans wore 

. Norman Soldiers 

chain coats and steel hel¬ 
mets, and carried a sword and shield. Many of them 
rode horses. Harold’s army of half-trained farmers had 
only the ancient battle-axe, or such tool or weapon as 
each had been able to pick up for himself. 

The Normans began the battle before Harold’s army 
had rested after their forced march from the north. The 
English held their ground all day and drove the enemy 
back again and again. Toward sunset Harold was killed 





68 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


by an arrow that struck him in the eye. With no one to 
direct them, the weary English troops gave way and 

each man fled in 
whatever direction he 
thought he could find 
safety. So ended the 
Battle of Hastings, on 
October 14, 1066. 

On Christmas Day 
of that same year, the 
Duke of Normandy 
was crowned King 
of England. Does 
“ Christmas Day” re¬ 
mind you of another 
king and his crown? 

William had won 
England and he now 
prepared to keep it. 
Here and there 
throughout the 
country, stout stone 
castles were built and 
given to the Norman 
lords and their sol¬ 
diers. So, if the people in the neighborhood of these 
castles wanted to rebel, they would be likely to think 
twice before doing so. 

The castles had a round or a square tower in the cen- 



Plan op a Noeman Castle 
1. The Donjon-keep. 2. Chapel. 3. Stables. 
4. Inner Court. 5. Outer Court. 6. Outworks. 
7. Mount, where justice was executed. 8. Sol¬ 
diers’ Lodgings. 























WILLIAM THE CONQUERER 


69 


ter, where the owner lived. Narrow openings in the 
stone walls, covered with iron gratings, served as win¬ 
dows. On the ground floor was a large room kept warm 
by a blazing log fire, where the family and the guests 
ate and worked. The walls were generally hung with a 
figured cloth called tapestry. 



The Great Hall in an English Noble’s House at About the Time or 
William the Conqueror 


Under the tower was the cold, dark, damp dungeon 
into which evil-doers were thrust, and where they some¬ 
times stayed till they died. Outside the tower was a 
courtyard. Here the soldiers drilled, the bright-eyed 
children played, the ladies walked and chatted after 
their spinning was done. 

All around the courtyard was a thick wall with watch- 



















70 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


towers a little way apart. Beyond the wall ran the 
moat — a ditch filled with water. Whenever anyone 
wanted to go into or out of the castle, a bridge was let 
down across the moat. 

The king gave all the high offices, and most of the 
land taken from the English, to his Norman friends. 
The Normans thought themselves much better than the 
English, and slighted them in every way. They made 
fun of the looks, manners, and speech of the Englishmen. 
All the people about the king spoke French. They 
called those who used English ignorant boors. 

This kind of treatment did not make Englishmen love 
the Conqueror. They clung to their mother tongue, 
and they were always plotting to get rid of their foreign 
king. They hated William especially on account of the 
Doomsday Book and the curfew. 

The curfew was a bell that rang every evening. At 
the sound of the bell, all fires had to be covered and all 
lights put out. The English thought they should be 
allowed to put out their own lights when it suited them 
to do so. Perhaps the King thought they would be less 
likely to plot against him if they had to sit in the cold 
and the dark to do it. Or, perhaps he thought there was 
less danger of houses being burned if everyone was obliged 
by law to cover the fire before going to bed. 

In order to find out just what every man in England 
owned, the king sent officers to look into every house 
and bam and pen and field in the land. What the offi¬ 
cers learned was written in the Doomsday Book. When- 


WILLIAM THE CONQUERER 


7i 

ever William wanted to tax his subjects he looked into 
this book. 

William the Conqueror was very severe, but also very 
just. Those who broke the law were punished harshly. 
On the other hand, he would not permit anyone who did 
not deserve it to be punished at all. He put his own 
brother into prison for mistreating some of the people 
on his land. He tried to learn the English language that 
he might better understand the complaints of the common 
people. But as he soon gave up trying, I suppose he 
found it easier to master England than to master its 
language. 

But, gradually, the two peoples hated each other less, 
and they learned many useful things from each other. 
The English learned some of the good manners of the 
French, and caught some of their gay and venturesome 
spirit. And for all their stubbornness about the lan¬ 
guage, a good many French words became part of it, 
and we still use them. On their side, the French learned 
to share the independence of the English and to under¬ 
stand why they did not like the Doomsday Book and the 
curfew. And they both found out how easy it is for 
Englishmen and Frenchmen to trade with each other 
and so help to make each nation richer and more com¬ 
fortable. 


RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED 


At about the time William of Normandy conquered 
England, the Turks conquered Jerusalem, the Holy City. 
Pilgrims to Jerusalem were insulted, robbed, murdered. 
Europeans made up their minds to take possession of 
the Holy City. The attempts they made to do this 
were called Crusades. 



There had been two Crusades and the Christians had 
won the city by the time a great-great-grandson of 
William the Conqueror became King of England. His 
name was Richard Plantagenet (Plan-taf e-net ), but he 
was always so ready to fight, no matter how many were 
against him, and so fearless in battle, that he earned the 
name of Richard the Lion-Hearted. 

When he went forth to battle, King Richard wore a 
closely fitting coat, made of small steel rings linked to- 

72 









RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED 


73 


gether, that reached to his knees. An undergarment 
made in the same way covered his legs. On his head, 
besides the hood of the coat, was a steel helmet. On his 
left arm was a kite-shaped wooden shield covered with 
black leather, having three rearing lions pictured on it. 



A View of Jerusalem 
Showing the Mount of Olives in the distance 

A heavy sword hung by his side, when it was not in his 
right hand. His horse was more strong than swift. Its 
bridle was trimmed with gold and silver and studded 
with precious stones. 

Richard Plantagenet was not a wise king, but he was, 
nevertheless, a very famous man. He won his fame as 












74 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


the leader of the Third Crusade. The Third Crusade was 
fought because Saladin (, Sal'a-din ), a brave Mohamme¬ 
dan (Mo-ham!me-dan) general, had taken Jerusalem away 
from the Christians. This capture stirred all Europe. 
Every important king and lord and knight “ assumed the 
cross/’ which means that he put a red or a white cross on 
his breast or on his shoulder as a sign of his vow to win 
back the Holy City. A knight was a man who promised 
to be brave, to be merciful, to be kind to women, to help 
all who were in trouble. A knight would not take a 
mean advantage even of an enemy. 

King Richard was the leader of the English knights 
and other warriors who took part in this Crusade. But 
he soon became commander-in-chief of the armies from 
all the other countries. 

When he entered the harbor of Acre, according to an 
Arab historian, “for joy at his coming the Franks broke 
forth into public rejoicing, and lit mighty fires in their 
camps all night long. And seeing that the King of Eng¬ 
land was old in war and wise in council, the hearts of the 
Mussulmans were filled with fear and dread.” 

The sight from the harbor must have made Richard’s 
heart beat quicker, too. Over the city waved the Cres¬ 
cent of the Mohammedans, with banners of yellow and 
green and black floating from every tower. On the plain 
before the city was the Christian army with the red Cross 
over-topping the variously colored flags of the nations. 
On the heights beyond the city, the tents of Saladin’s 
hosts gleamed in the bright sunlight. A month later 




RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED 


7S 



Richard the Lion-Hearted Landing in Palestine 






















76 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


the Crusaders had won the city and the Cross replaced 
the Crescent. 

As they advanced toward Jerusalem, they were fre¬ 
quently attacked by great numbers of the enemy. It 
often seemed as though they must be utterly crushed. 
But Richard always saved the day by dashing to the 
front, shouting his war-cry, and cleaving a way with his 
sword. 

i Once, when Saladin had recaptured a city from the 
French, Richard insisted upon returning there. The 
French soldiers in his army refused to go with him. 
Taking a small English force in two or three galleys, 
he sailed swiftly back along the coast. Although there 
were but fifty of his knights among the troops that 
accompanied him, he actually chased the Turks out of the 
place. Encamped with his few hundreds, he was at¬ 
tacked the next day by as many thousands. Chiefly 
by his own bravery, he scared them off. Then he rode 
up and down in front of the enemy lines, crying, “Now 
who will dare a fight for the honor of God?” But not 
one would take up his challenge. From that time on, 
Turkish mothers made their children behave well with 
the threat, “King Richard is coming,” and Turkish 
riders asked their shying horses if they saw “the Lion- 
Hearted King.” 

What a wonderful sight it must have been to see that 
fearless leader urging on his archers, his spearmen, his 
swordsmen, and his knights in armor to make worthy 
use of their weapons. Often, it was necessary to lay 


RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED 


77 


siege to a well-defended city. Then other weapons were 
used. There were huge machines for hurling stones 
against the walls. Richard was very skilful in the con¬ 
struction and use of these. At one siege he got up from 
a sick bed to direct this work, and even aimed some 
shots himself. 

But the greatest weapon of offense was the siege- 
castle. This was a 
movable tower, built 
of wood, high enough 
to overtop the walls 
of the town attacked. 

In the lower part 
was a heavy ram to 
break into the wall; 
higher up were 
bridges that could 
be lowered on to the 
wall. At the top 
were places for the 
archers and the 
stone-throwing ma¬ 
chines. The defen¬ 
ders would try to 
keep the castle away from the walls by means of iron- 
pointed beams stuck out from them, or to set it on 
fire with flaming arrows. Or, when the enemy was close, 
they would pour Greek fire down on him. Most of 
these siege-castles were built as they were needed. But 



Movable Tower 




78 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Richard had one specially made, which he kept with him 
through all his wars. 

It was not because of any lack of skill or valor on 
the part of Richard the Lion-Hearted that Jerusalem was 
not taken. The King of France had gone home, and his 
people would not help Richard properly. There was 
much illness among the Crusaders, and the King himself 
was now in poor health. Richard pro¬ 
posed a truce, to which Saladin was glad 
to agree. When Richard told him that 
he intended to come back and renew the 
war, Saladin said that if he had to lose 
the city he would rather lose it to Richard 
than to any other prince he had ever seen. 
He also invited Richard to visit Jeru¬ 
salem as a pilgrim, but this the King 
refused to do, since he could not also go 
as a conqueror. 

Richard was never able to carry out 
his intention to go back. Other princes 
were too jealous of his great fame. On 
his way back to England, he was cap¬ 
tured and held prisoner in Austria. And 
after he succeeded in reaching home, 
there were wars with the French. 
Though not a wise king, Richard was 
a well-loved one. A story is told of how he once went dis¬ 
guised as a monk to Sherwood Forest to see Robin Hood 
and his Merry Men. Robin Hood seized him and held him 



Richard I in Prison 






RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED 79 


as a captive, although Richard first knocked Robin down. 
Admiring the bravery of the man, Robin Hood invited him 
to a feast. When they were all gathered, Richard showed 
his ring and said he was a messenger from the King. 
At mention of that name the entire company rose and 
shouted, “Long live King Richard!’' That shows very 
well the feeling of his people toward him. . 

The Crusades did much for the nations of Europe, even 
though they failed to win and keep the Holy City. Through 
the Crusades, Europeans learned more than they knew 
before about medicine, geography, and arithmetic. For 
example, they learned to use the Arabic figures instead 
of the clumsy Roman numerals. They learned to raise 
such products as rice and oranges, and to make new 
goods such as silk and muslin. So, although Jerusalem 
remained a Turkish city for many centuries, the world 
can never forget the Crusades, nor the fame of their 
greatest leader, Richard the Lion-Hearted. 


MARCO POLO AND THE LAND OF THE 
GOLDEN DRAGON 


How should you like to have your father take you on a 
long journey across the blue waters of an inland sea, 
through strange countries, over snow-capped mountains, 
and across a wide desert to the court of a mighty emperor 


who lives in a splendid palace? 
That is what happened to a boy 
about one hundred years after 
Richard the Lion-Hearted started 
for Jerusalem. 



But that boy, Marco Polo, was 
\ older than you are. He was 
seventeen when his father and 
% his uncle, taking him with them, 
started from Venice to revisit 
Kublai Khan, who ruled the 
broad plains watered by the long, 


Kublai Khan 
From an ancient Chinese 
manuscript 


crooked, yellow river of China, or Cathay, as it was 
called then. 

It took them four years to go from Venice to Pekin. 
If you were to start from here now, you would probably 
go part of the way in a swiftly moving train drawn by a 
steam locomotive, part of the way in a steamship larger 
than your house, and part of the way, perhaps, in an 


80 


MARCO POLO 


81 


electric car or automobile, and you would reach Pekin in 
about four weeks. 

Marco Polo went on his journey five hundred years 
before anyone dreamed of making vehicles moved by 
steam or electricity. In his day, men went by water in 
small sailing vessels. When they went by land, on an 



Eastern trip, they banded together on horseback, with 
the things they needed for the journey and the things 
they wanted for trading loaded on the backs of camels. 
Such a company of men, horses, and camels is called a 
caravan. 

The caravan traveled by day and camped by night. 
Sometimes they met caravans coming the other way, or 
one coming from a distant place but going in their di¬ 
rection for a time. Then there were kindly greetings 












82 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


and friendly visits, and weird stories of fabulous men 
and monstrous animals, told as the wanderers sat in the 
shadow of their tents while the round full moon glided 
along its star-set way high over their heads. 

Often, however, troops of enemy warriors or bands of 
savage robbers would swoop down upon the caravan. 



Then there followed terrible hand-to-hand fights, and 
sometimes all the men would be killed and their goods 
and camels stolen. Besides the danger of being attacked 
by these fierce tribes, there was the chance of being lost 
in a desert, or buried in its sand storms, or overcome by 
the great heat. 

It was Marco Polo’s father and uncle who went to the 








MARCO POLO 


83 


Far East and first brought back to Venice news of the 
rich empire of Cathay. But only the people who heard 
them speak and those to whom these hearers repeated 
the tale knew about their great journey, and before long 
what they had said was forgotten. Four years after 
Marco came home, he was captured by the Genoese in a 
sea fight between them and the Venetians. While a 
prisoner in Genoa, he 
told his fellow captives 
what had happened to 
him during the twenty- 
four years he had been 
away from Venice. 

This exciting story of 
bleak plains, lovely val¬ 
leys, and dense forests; 
of gilt palaces, mountain 
caves, and heathen 
temples; of hardships, 
dangers, and escapes, 
was written down by 
One of the prisoners. From a manuscript in the British Museum, 
o ^ London 

Several copies of this 

story were made, but the monks who made them were 
not always careful to copy just what they read. And 
if they did not understand some word, thinking it was 
wrong, they left it out or put a different one in its place. 
This makes it doubtful just what Polo did say in some 
parts of the book. After a while, even these written ac- 



A Monk Copyist 






































84 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

counts of the East were laid away, and forgotten for 
nearly two centuries. 

Then a wonderful thing happened. People found out 
how to print books. By printing them, books could be 
made in greater numbers, much more quickly and much 
more cheaply than by script, so that many persons who 
could not have them before, now had books to read. 
Among the hand-written books that were printed, was 
this two-hundred-year-old story of Marco Polo’s. When 
Columbus read it, he became more eager than ever to 
find a short way to Cathay. 

“But what about the land of the golden dragon?” 
you ask. It is a long way from Venice to that, and it is 
in his book that we read how Polo reached it. 

With his father and his uncle, he set out from Venice one 
clear April morning on a war vessel bound for Turkey. 
On the way through northern Turkey they observed 
many curious customs of the natives and passed through 
many queer cities. One day a friendly chief invited 
them to join a hunting party. Marco was too young to 
take part in the hunt itself, but from a safe distance he 
saw a gigantic tiger attacked by the hunters from the 
backs of their elephants, and finally killed. In later 
years Marco took part in the chase and capture of this 
big game. 

When they reached the lower valley of the Tigris, they 
were assailed by fierce-looking robbers with long mous¬ 
taches and gleaming black eyes, who were, after a hard 
fight, driven back to their mountain retreats. Shortly 


MARCO POLO 


35 


after this adventure they entered the city so famous in 
the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Of course, Haroun 
al Raschid had died long ago. But don’t you suppose 
Marco was delighted to see with his own eyes some of 
the sights that good Caliph had seen? And shouldn’t 
you be ? 



The little band of travelers, crossing the Persian Gulf, 
found themselves in the flowery kingdom of Persia* 
From a town near the Caspian Sea, they turned due east. 
Soon Marco was surprised by the sight of a rugged range 
of mountains higher than anything he had ever imagined, 
which they crossed before coming to the “Roof of the 

















86 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


World/’ the highest of all plateaus. In many parts of 
the mountains they had to go in single file, leading the 
horses and camels through a narrow defile or along the 
edge of a deep gorge. 



A Scene in China 


Passing through a country where they saw rich red 
rubies, silver ore, vast herds of wild sheep, and swift, 
unshod horses, our travelers came to the edge of a great 
desert. They made ready to cross the desert by provid¬ 
ing “a month’s supply for man and beast”; for it would 
take that long to cross it, and “not a thing to eat is to be 
found on it. But after riding for a day and a night you 
may find fresh water enough, mayhap, for some fifty or a 



MARCO POLO 


87 


hundred persons with their beasts, but not for more.” 
Nothing was to be seen but sky above and sand beneath 
— no trace of a road and nothing “to guide them but the 
bones of men and of beasts.” 

The desert once passed, they entered a farming country 
where the fields were green with crops, and the people 
busy, happy, and peace-loving. As they advanced into 
the country, they passed little villages, populous cities, 
and magnificent temples. Slant-eyed, yellow-skinned 
little men, in loose shirts, creaked 
along the rough roads in clumsy 
carts that had no springs, or float¬ 
ed down the streams in queer, 
square-sailed boats called junks. 

At last they were but three 
days’ journey from Xandu, the 
summer home of Kublai Khan, to 
whom they sent a messenger. The great Khan himself, 
seated under a glittering canopy of silk and gold on the 
back of a huge elephant, and attended by a long train of 
horsemen, came to meet them. And now for the golden 
dragon! It was everywhere in Xandu — on the banners, 
dresses, dishes; on the walls of the white marble palace and 
on the columns that supported its roof. The flag of China 
for many hundred years had a dragon on it. If ever 
you go to China, you will learn, as Marco Polo did, 
that this scaly monster with teeth, claws, and tail, 
represents to the Chinese all the powers of earth, air, and 
water. 








88 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Besides the marble palace, there was in Xandu another 
one built entirely of bamboo. The Chinese not only 
built palaces of bamboo but used it for everything else 
you can think of — sails, weapons, tools, footballs — 
even the stick with which law-breakers were beaten was 
of bamboo. 

During his travels in China, Marco Polo found people 
using a “kind of black stones” which they dug out of 
beds in the mountains and burned like firewood. Can 
you guess what the stones were ? 

In another place he noted great numbers of mulberry 
trees. Feeding on the leaves of the trees were the silk¬ 
worms from the cocoons of which the Chinese made the 
beautiful silks so much prized by Europeans, who re¬ 
ceived them by way of India. 

Polo crossed a mountain where a lovely blue stone 
(lapis lazuli) used in jewelry was found in abundance. 
But no one dared to take any of these stones without 
the Emperor’s order. He visited a river whose sands 
were full of gold, and a lake where divers fished for 
pearls. 

There were many other interesting things seen and 
done by Marco Polo during the twenty years he lived in 
China. Sometimes, perhaps, you will read about them 
in the story of his Travels , just as he told it himself. 


COLUMBUS, LOOKING FOR A NEW WAY TO THE 
SPICE ISLANDS, FINDS A NEW WORLD 

You might expect that the people of Europe, as they 
learned of the wonders of the Far East from Marco Polo 
and other travelers, would be eager to keep on trying to 
find new and strange lands. 

But for many years every 
country was so busy fighting 
its neighbors that there was 
little time or money to give 
to other things. 

Besides, most of the people 
were uneducated and be¬ 
lieved that the earth was 
flat. Ever since Alexander’s 
teacher, Aristotle, had proved 
that it is round, learned men 
had agreed with him. But 
ignorant people thought it 
could not be shaped like a 
ball. How could men walk 
upon the under side, heads down, like flies on a ceiling? 
Of course, no one who thought the earth was flat 
would risk running far out into an unknown ocean where 
the ship might topple over the edge. So, even the few 

89 



Christopher Columbus 
From the bust at Pavia 


9 o 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 



Mariner’s Compass 


who were wiser than the others and wanted to learn 
more about the world, could not get men enough to sail 
their vessels. 

The world has grown wiser since those long-ago days, 
and much of its knowledge is due to the efforts of the 
brave men who dared to prove that their ideas were 
right. One of these men, Christopher Columbus, was 
bom in Genoa, where Marco Polo two hundred years 
earlier had told the story of his travels. 
Columbus early showed great love for 
life on the sea. The good education 
that his father wisely gave him enabled 
Christopher to become, even as a young 
man, a clever seaman and a skilled nav¬ 
igator. When he reached manhood, 
he believed that the earth is a globe, and that the 
Spice Islands could be reached by sailing westward from 
Europe. A sea route would be quicker, and would 
avoid the dangers of the caravan route overland to India. 

By now the mariner’s compass had come into general 
use. The Arabs had found this invention in China, 
and through them it had become known to others. By 
its means the direction in which a ship was sailing could 
be told at all times, and sailors no longer had to watch 
the sun on clear days, or look for the North Star on 
cloudless nights. 

Columbus worked out how long it takes the sun to 
travel the length of the Mediterranean Sea, figured out 
the distance it would cover in twenty-four hours, and so 


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 


9i 


arrived at some idea of the size of the earth. He was 
now ready to venture westward over the unknown ocean 
and thus find a sea route to India and the Spice Islands. 

Vessels and money were needed. He could find no 
one in his own land to help him get them, so he went to 



Columbus asking Aid of Queen Isabella 
After the painting by Brozik 


Portugal, which was at that time the most daring of the 
sea-going countries. Under the Portuguese flag, he went 
as far north as Iceland and as far south as the Canary 
Islands. But King John thought the only way to reach 
the Spice Islands was to go around Africa. He would 
give Columbus no help to carry out his idea of a western 
route. So Columbus next tried to interest the King and 
















92 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Queen of Spain. For seven years he begged their aid, 
and at last they consented to give it. 

There was great excitement in the little port of Palos 
when Columbus set forth with one hundred twenty men 
in three small vessels. They seemed tiny for the work 
they had to do, but Columbus chose them, instead of 
larger warships, because they could be more easily sailed 
and handled. 



Departure oe Columbus from Palos 
After the picture by Antonio Gisbert 


At the end of a week, after some slight mishaps, they 
reached the Canary Islands. From here they headed 
due west into an unknown sea. Probably not a man on 
board except the leader himself had much belief in their 
possible success. His men did not share his faith. Few 
of them had volunteered. Many of them had been forced 
to go by the Queen’s orders. Others had been released 
from prison on their promise that they would join the crews. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 93 

Small wonder that, before long, these untrained men 
became uneasy and afraid, and wanted to turn back. 
Their wise commander kept a true record of the number 
of miles traveled each day, but always told them it was 
a shorter distance. As a result, they did not think they 


Caravels of Columbus 

were so far from home as they really were, and gave less 
trouble than they otherwise would have given. Still 
there were many anxious days and nights for Columbus. 

On September 14, 1492, they saw birds for the first 
time in over a month, and since several of these were 
land birds, the men were somewhat cheered. A week 









94 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


later they ran into great quantities of floating seaweed. 
This fact gave them more hope that they were nearing 
land. But the weeds were so thick in places that it was 
hard to sail through them, and some of the sailors began 
to fear that the boats would become so entangled that 
they could never get out. Another week passed, and in 
spite of seeing more shore birds, and crabs, and small fish, 
the long-expected land did not appear. 

Columbus had all he could do to keep control over his 
men. As his son says in telling the story, “They thought 
every hour a year in their anxiety to see the wished-for 
land.” Then, too, these land signs made some of them 
think that they had passed by islands on their way, and 
they wanted to change their course and search for them. 
Columbus, however, was steadfast. Reminding them of 
the punishment they would receive from the king if they 
spoiled the success of the voyage, he sailed on and on, 
ever westward. 

Shouts of “Land, land!” did not raise their spirits, 
especially after the first call proved to be a false alarm. 
But even the most downcast man could not help taking 
fresh courage when, “from the Admiral’s ship a green 
rush was seen to float past, and one of those green fish 
which never go far from the rocks. The people in the 
Pinta ( Peen'ta ) saw a cane and a staff in the water, and 
took up another staff very curiously carved, and a small 
board, and great masses of weeds were seen which seemed 
to have been recently torn from the rocks. Those of 
the Nina (. Neen'yah ), besides similar signs of land, saw a 


Columbus’s Ideas of the Atlantic “ 

he shaded portions represent the land as Columbus expected to'find it. The light outline of the Americas shows the 

actual position of the land about which he did not know 



















96 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

branch of a thorn full of red berries, which seemed to 
have been newly torn from the tree.” 

The same night flickering lights were seen ahead, and 
at daybreak, October 12, 1492, the anxious eyes of 
Columbus and his men looked upon land once more. 
How they cheered at the sight! Small boats soon carried 



Landing of Columbus, Early Morning, October 12, 1492 
After the picture by Dioscora Puebla, the Spanish artist 


them to shore, where Columbus took possession of the 
land in the name of the King and Queen of Spain. 

Although he soon found this was only an island, Colum¬ 
bus had no doubt that it was a part of India, and so 
called the natives Indians. These naked, bronze-colored 
people, who proved to be peaceful and friendly, were 


CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 


97 


objects of great interest to the Europeans. On the other 
hand, the Indians looked with surprise and awe upon the 
wonderful white men, who wore clothing, and carried 
strange weapons, and sailed the sea in ships “with wings.” 

But Columbus was disappointed to discover that these 
people were poor. Where were the spices and silks? 
Where were the rich mines of gold and silver? When 
the women were asked where their gold nose-rings came 
from, they pointed to the south and told, in sign-lan¬ 
guage, of the marvels to be found there. They told, also, 
how warlike tribes from the north often attacked these 
southern nations, and came back laden with gold. 

Columbus sailed on, searching for the lands they de¬ 
scribed. He found many more islands, but none of them 
bore out the promise of gold, not even the large island of 
Cuba, at which they finally arrived. They decided that 
this must be part of the mainland of Cathay, the coun¬ 
try of Kublai Khan. Here they found Indians “rolling 
up dry leaves and lighting them, to hold them smoking 
between their teeth.” They also found them cooking and 
eating a small bulbous root. But with their minds set 
upon the search for gold, they did not pay much attention 
to these things — tobacco and potato! Little did they 
think that these discoveries would mean more to the 
civilized world than could any number of gold mines. 

While exploring the coast of Cuba, the flag-ship was 
injured so badly in shallow waters that she was of no fur¬ 
ther use, and the Pinta was missing. Columbus decided 
that he would have to return to Spain for more ships and 


9 8 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


men. But there were too many to sail on the little Nina . 
He left a company behind to settle and explore the island, 
and started for home, luckily finding the missing ship on 
his way. 



Lands Discovered by Columbus 


They met with terrible storms on the return trip, 
when it seemed at times as though all on board would be 
lost. But they won through, and entered the home port 
of Palos, which they had left seven months before. 

Imagine the excitement and the rejoicing over their 
safe return, with the news that a western route to Asia 
had been found! Picture the glory of Columbus on his 
march of triumph to the capital. Think of his happiness 
when, upon his arrival, the King and Queen invited him 








CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 


99 


to sit beside them, the highest mark of favor. This was 
the proudest day of his life. 

Now all Spain was eager to send a second expedition. 
This was done, and Columbus found other islands in the 
West Indies and made settlements there. On a third 
voyage he discovered 
the coast of South 
America. It was now 
charged against him 
that he was cruel, and 
did not manage things 
well. He was ordered 
home in chains. This 
disgrace, after all he 
had dared and suffered, 
nearly broke his heart. 

In spite of this, how¬ 
ever, he made one more 
voyage, coasting along 
the shores of Central 
America. 

When Columbus died, 
he still firmly believed 
that all the lands he had found were a part of Asia. He 
never knew that he had done a much greater thing than 
to find a western water route to Cathay or to the Spice 
Islands. He never dreamed of discovering a New World 
where, in years to come, mighty nations were to grow up 
out of the small settlements of emigrants from Europe. 



The Columbus Monument at Genoa 




VASCO DA GAMA FINDS WHAT COLUMBUS 
LOOKED FOR 

You remember that Columbus could get no aid from 
Portugal, mainly because that country was busy with its 
own answer to the question, “How can the Indies be 
reached by sea ? ” The mariners 
of that country were not ready 
to believe they could do this by 
sailing westward. But they did 
think they might go around 
Africa. It is true they heard 
horrible reports of white men 
who went beyond a certain 
point on the African coast turn¬ 
ing black; of the sea and rivers 
near the equator being boiling 

T7 _ hot; of terrible monsters and 

Vasco da Gama . 

sea-serpents that lay just be¬ 
yond the known coast waiting for human prey. 

In spite of this, some of the bolder captains ventured 
farther and farther southward. They did not turn black, 
nor did they find the boiling water and the sea-monsters. 
They did find gold and ivory, and they started the 
African slave trade. Before Columbus made his dis¬ 
coveries, they had passed the equator. They went even 



IOO 







VASCO DA GAMA 


IOI 


as far as the mouth of the Congo. But it seemed as 
though the southward-running coast would never end. 

Finally, Bartholomew Diaz (Bar-thoVo-mew De'ath ) suc¬ 
ceeded in getting round the cape at the end of Africa. 
He called it Torment Cape, but King John named it 
Cape of Good Hope. For, having found it, there was 
“good hope” that they would also find a sea route to the 
Spice Islands. 

The discoveries of Columbus were looked upon by the 
Portuguese as of little 
value. What had he 
found except a few small 
islands inhabited by poor 
savages ? India was still 
to be reached. So, when 
King John died, his son 
carried on his work. Diaz 
was now too old to ven¬ 
ture forth again, so the 
King had to look for • a new leader to make the trip 
around Africa. 

One day, in the courtyard of his palace, his eye fell 
upon a strong, active man about thirty years of age. 
The King sought no further. Vasco da Gama was his 
man. He made no mistake in this choice, for Da Gama 
had already made a name for himself as a sailor and a 
fighter. 

Preparations were made with great care. Four small 
but strong vessels were specially built. Each was fur- 



Dangers or the “Sea of Darkness ?y 
From an old picture 






102 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


nished with three sets of rigging. The ships were loaded 
with cargoes of great variety to be traded for products of 
the East when India should be reached. 

From the very start they met with difficulties. Head 
winds, storms, and calms by turns hindered their prog¬ 
ress. They were more than a month reaching the 
Cape Verde Islands. Leaving them, they struggled on 
southward for over two months, out of sight of land. 
When at length they did turn eastward, they found the 
coast still running to the south. After a brief stop, for 
a little rest and to lay in a supply of fresh water, they 
continued down the coast. More tempests met them, 
and as they went on, day in and day out, that south¬ 
stretching coast seemed endless. 

The weary men began to think that Diaz had been tell¬ 
ing a made-up story about the Cape of Good Hope, or 
that he had just dreamed about it. They begged the 
captains to turn back, but their leader was firm. He 
shared their labors, worked and watched almost without 
rest, and set them a fine example of courage. When this 
did not quiet them, he told them angrily that he would 
keep on southward till they rounded the Cape or the 
ships went down. 

At last, one day when they tacked to the east, no land 
appeared. Da Gama was sure he had passed the Cape, 
and turned northward. He was right; they soon saw 
land on the west. But a week of contrary winds drove 
them back past the Cape again. If he could have had a 
steamship, head winds and calms would not have delayed 



VASCO DA GAMA 103 

him so often. But in order to have a steamship he 
would have had to wait four hundred years before making 
his voyage. 

Once more they rounded the Cape and, helped now by 
good weather, succeeded, on Christmas Day, in reaching 


The Portuguese Route to India 

The broken lines show the old trade routes to the East. The solid line shows 
the new; Portuguese route 

a point they named Natal. Can you see why they gave 
it that name? Soon, however, their old troubles re¬ 
turned. Storms, calms, currents, were against them, 
and, now added, the extreme heat of midsummer in the 
Indian Ocean. 






104 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


The men lost heart. Even the pilots became alarmed, 
and declared that the ships had been so badly damaged 
they could not outlast another gale. But Da Gama 
said, “I swore to turn back not until I should reach 
India. Let anyone who shall again propose to do so, 
expect to be thrown into the sea!” He looked as though 
he meant it, too. So the men lashed themselves to the 
rigging to keep from being washed away, and on they 
went. It became almost impossible to man the pumps 
and keep the vessels afloat. Even when the worst of the 
storm had passed, the ships were so leaky that the men 
in despair begged again that they might turn back. Da 
Gama answered, “I said that I would not. If I saw 
death in the way for every one of us, I would go on. 
To India, or perish!” 

Then some of the captains plotted to seize the ships 
and turn back. The scheme was discovered by one of 
the loyal captains, who told Da Gama. He tricked all 
the leaders of the revolt into coming aboard his own 
ship, by telling them he would do as they wished, if they 
would all sign a paper to shield him from the anger of 
the King. When he got them there, he had them seized 
and put in irons. Bringing them on deck, he told his 
crew that the traitors would remain prisoners until he 
returned to Lisbon. He added, “I have need of neither 
pilots nor sailing-masters; henceforth I will direct the 
course of the ships myself.” 

But now scurvy broke out among them, the first cases 
of this disease known to European sailors. It is caused 


VASCO DA GAMA 


105 

by constantly eating the same kind of food, and by a 
lack of fresh vegetables. 

On Easter Sunday, they anchored in the port of 
Melinda, and here Da Gama was delighted to find four 
Christian trading vessels from India. Up to now, all 



Vasco da Gama presents to the Samorin of Calicut the Letter of 
the King of Portugal 
After the painting by M. Salgado 


the people along the coast had been either savages or 
Mohammedans, mostly hostile. But better than meet¬ 
ing their fellow white men was finding the king of the 
natives friendly. On his advice, they laid up for three 
months, waiting for the favorable trade winds to carry 
them across the Indian Ocean. 








io6 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


When they left, they were well supplied with fresh 
provisions. The ships were cleaned and calked, and all 
the rigging was renewed. Best of all, they had pilots 
who knew the way. 

After a pleasant and peaceful trip, they sighted the 
coast of India, near Calicut. The goal had been won! 
Da Gama was so overjoyed that he released all his prison¬ 
ers, in order to have not one sorrowful heart on board. 

Before them lay a busy city with warehouses full of 
spices, drugs, wax, and amber, brought from the Spice 
Islands. There precious stones, gold, and other metals 
were to be had. There, too, was an abundance of grain, 
of carpet and cloth, of provisions of all kinds. 

But to trade their cargoes for these products of the 
East proved to be no easy matter. There were many 
Arab merchants in Calicut, and they did not want to 
lose any part of their business to these Christians. They 
told the native ruler that Da Gama was a wicked pirate. 
They warned him that people had been slaughtered 
wherever the Portuguese had landed. They said the same 
thing would happen in Calicut if any treaty were made. 

The Arabs were more alarmed than ever when the 
ruler, in spite of their evil reports, gave the strangers 
liberty to trade in the city. They bribed the captain of 
the guard to annoy the Portuguese so that they would 
do something to cause the ruler to put them all to death. 

The captain of the guard laid a plot he thought would 
answer that purpose. He led Da Gama from street to 
street, turning first this way then that, till it was dark. 


VASCO DA GAMA 


107 


i&ccima 


Stopping in an out-of-the-way place, he ordered Da Gama 
and the Portuguese with him to enter a house he pointed 
out. 

The captain left them there all night, and the next 
morning took them a day’s journey into the lonely coun¬ 
try. But Vasco kept his temper. 

The captain insulted him, but 
he could not make Da Gama 
say or do anything that would 
serve as an excuse for killing 
him. 

Not daring to keep them any 
longer lest the ruler find out the 
trick he was playing, the cap¬ 
tain of the guard took his pris¬ 
oners back to Calicut. The 
ruler did find out what his 
officer had done, and promptly 
had him arrested. He gave Da Gama a rich present in 
token of his regret for the captain’s misconduct. He also 
helped him to finish getting his boats loaded. As soon as 
this was done, Vasco da Gama set sail for the return voyage. 

Before he succeeded in entering a harbor on the African 
coast, the supply of water ran short, scurvy broke out 
again, and thirty of the men died. At one time, so 
many were ill that only seven or eight men were left able 
to sail each of the vessels. The sailors again threatened 
to turn back — to India this time. 

When they reached Melinda, it seemed almost like 



Ship of Vasco da Gama 






io8 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


home. After five days’ rest they were ready to proceed. 
Making only such stops as were necessary to secure fresh 
Water and provisions, they rounded the Cape of Good 
Hope once more, and started up that long, long western 
coast of Africa. 

One autumn evening, the King of Portugal sat resting 
in his country place. Perhaps he was wondering what 
had befallen the little fleet he had sent out on the same 
errand Columbus had undertaken seven years before. 
A servant entered and said there was a strange, rough 
sea-captain outside who demanded to see the king. 
The man was admitted. He told the king that he had 
just come in a swift ship from the Cape Verde Islands. 
As he left, two weather-beaten caravels were crawling 
into harbor there. When hailed, they said they came 
from India , and were commanded by Vasco da Gama! 
It was true. Da Gama had found what Columbus looked 
for, a sea route to India and the Spice Islands. 

We can well believe that the king hastened to Lisbon, 
and made great preparation to give his returning voy¬ 
agers a royal welcome. Holiday was declared, and flags 
flung forth. People thronged the shore and the harbor 
was filled with boats. Da Gama and his men sailed slowly 
in, greeted by wild cheering, and salutes from cannon. 
Upon landing, he was received in great state. The king 
rose to greet him, which was a mark of special honor. 

Da Gama was made a nobleman, and was given a large 
sum of money. Such a reward was surely due to the 
man who had found the sea-route to India. 


CORTES, WHO RUINED A CITY TO WIN IT 

You have seen how small tribes became large nations 
by adding to their own the lands their rulers won from 
neighboring or from distant countries. This story and 
the one about Pizarro (Pi-zar'ro) will show 
you how the little nation of Spain won and 
kept countries nearly as large as all Europe 
in the new land found by Columbus. 

The Spanish conquerors in the New 
World were not looking for the glory of 
great victories over an enemy far outnum¬ 
bering their own armies, as Alexander was; 
nor for new homes, as the Goths under 
Alaric were; nor for more people to gov¬ 
ern, as Charlemagne was. They were 
looking for gold so that they might be SpAN:[SH Knight of 
very rich. They could not take the i6th Century 
precious metal away from the Indians without first con¬ 
quering them. 

That the Spaniards were such cruel masters was due to 
their own hard hearts and coarse ways of living. For 
the Indians were friendly at first, thinking the white men 
must be the gods they worshipped coming to pay them 
a visit. Even when they had to fight the natives, the 
Spaniards could have been more merciful if they had 
wanted to be. Though the Indians far outnumbered 

109 



no 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


them, the white men were better off for fighting in every 
other way. 

About two hundred years before this time, gunpowder 
had been first used in a battle. During all the years 
following that battle, the nations of Europe had been 
using guns and cannon in their wars. And the Spanish 



Cannon of Cortes’s Time 

There are, in the naval museum at Annapolis, guns captured in the Mexican 
War supposed to be those used by Cortes 


conquerors brought them to the New World. These 
magic tools, that had only to “speak” in order to kill 
men, filled the Indians with terror. Nor were they much 
less scared by the horses, animals they had never seen 
before. They were probably as much frightened at the 
sight of them as the Greeks were at their first sight of 
elephants. Besides, the Spanish soldiers wore armor and 
carried sharp swords. To oppose these weapons, the 
Indians could bring only their half-naked bodies and their 
lances or javelins, arrows, and wooden swords. 



HERNANDO CORTES 


hi 


The first of these conquerors that I am going to tell 
you about is Hernando Cortes ( Her-nan'do Cor-tes'). 

It was only twenty-seven years after Columbus dis¬ 
covered America, in the same year that Magellan started 
on his great voyage, that Cortes 
landed on the coast of Mexico. 

The chief tribe of Mexican In¬ 
dians was called Aztecs. Mon¬ 
tezuma ( Mon-te-zu'ma ), who 
lived in the City of Mexico, 
was their king. What Monte¬ 
zuma heard about the pale- 
faced strangers on the coast, 
made him believe that Cortes 
was one of the Aztec gods re¬ 
turning home by way of Mexico 
from a visit to the sun. He 
sent messengers to greet the 
supposed god. The messengers took gifts of fruit, vege¬ 
tables, and flowers, as well as of gold, jewels, and pieces 
of feather-work cloth. For all that, Montezuma did not 
desire the company of the strangers in his capital. He 
politely told them that it would be best for them to 
return to their own country. But, later, as they continued 
to draw near, he sent word to his subjects to receive them 
peaceably. Otherwise, he said, the god would utterly 
destroy the people. Had he been a little braver he might 
have saved the Aztecs from the very thing he feared 
would happen to them. 



Cortes 

After a painting in the Massachu¬ 
setts Historical Society’s collection 


112 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


When Cortes was ready to go inland, what do you think 
he did to make sure none of his own soldiers would desert 
him? He caused all the ships to be sunk in the harbor 
one night while the sailors were ashore. With no ships, 



Scene on the Route of Cortes 
From Charnay’s Ancient Cities of the New World 


it would be just as safe to go on as to turn back, no mat¬ 
ter how great the danger. 

Between the coast and the City of Mexico were tribes 
that did not want to be ruled by Montezuma. These 
tribes asked Cortes to help them break the power of the 
king. Cortes promised to do so. Consequently, thou- 



HERNANDO CORTES 


113 

sands of their warriors joined the Spanish army. It was 
well for Cortes that they did. In one place a tribe was 
unfriendly and would not let the strangers pass. In the 
battle that followed, if the natives were frightened by 
the roar of the cannon, the white men were equally panic- 
stricken by the yells of the Indians. Had it not been 
for his Indian allies, Cortes 
would never have seen the 
Aztec capital. 

The Spaniards were 
guilty of many cruel deeds 
on their march. They en¬ 
tered a village where all 
the men were away, put 
the women and children 
to the sword, and burned 
the huts. In another place 
the people agreed to re¬ 
ceive them as masters. 

After feasting the army of 
their masters for three 
days, their food gave out. 

Cortes chose to regard this as a sign of unfriendliness. He 
ordered all the chief men to come to the square before 
the temple. Many of the warriors came, too, and the 
place was so crowded they could scarcely move. I sup¬ 
pose they expected some kind of entertainment. Cer¬ 
tainly they could not expect any evil to befall them. 
Had they not given the great white chief all they pos- 



Montezuma, the Last King of 
Mexico 

After Montanus and Ogilby 


11 4 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


sessed, and obeyed him in every way? The Spaniards 
entered the square, and murdered every one of these 
harmless creatures. Not satisfied, they destroyed the 
whole town, people and buildings. 

Leaving such traces as these in his path, Cortes ap¬ 
peared before the capital of the Aztecs. 

The city was built on an island in a mountain lake. 
Three stone roads, called causeways, led across the lake 
from three different directions into the town. The three 
openings in each causeway were covered by bridges that 
could be drawn up. Where the three roads met in the 
city, there was a large square. Canals running into the 
island enabled canoes from the lake to enter the town. 
The houses were one-story high, and built around an open 
space called the court. Flower gardens covered the roofs. 

In the square was the temple. You might represent 
it by five toy blocks placed one on top of the other, each 
block being smaller than the one below. Then imagine 
the blocks to be big enough to make a building as high as 
a ten-story house. The platform of each story was 
reached by a flight of stone steps. 

On the topmost platform there was a huge gong made 
of snake skin, which was sounded only when something 
unusual happened. Here, too, were the altars. On these 
altars the priests sacrificed the prisoners taken in war. 
Before the altars there burned fires that were never 
allowed to go out. 

Montezuma, thinking it useless to resist, invited the 
unwelcome visitors into the city. He set aside a large 


HERNANDO CORTES 


US 

palace for their use, and gave his guests rich presents of 
gold, precious stones, and colored plumes. He also 
agreed to become a subject of the King of Spain. 

Cortes was not satisfied. By means of threats and 
promises he made the timid ruler come to his part of the 
town. Once there, he was not allowed to return to his 



The City of Mexico under the Conquerors 
From the engraving in the Niewe Wereld of Montanus 


own palace. With the king in his power, Cortes was the 
real ruler of Mexico. He ordered that all the gold and 
silver articles to be found in the country round about 
should be brought to him. He kept most of the wealth 
so collected for himself. When the soldiers murmured at 
the smallness of their share, he gave them promises in¬ 
stead of gold. 

They had lived in the capital five months when dis¬ 
turbing news was brought to Cortes. Another band of 
fortune-hunting Spaniards was on its way to the city of 
the Aztecs. Cortes went out to stop them. 






n6 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


While he was away, the Indians gathered in the court 
of the temple to hold a service in honor of their gods. 
Without the least excuse the Spaniards fell upon them 
with sword and gun. They killed the unarmed men and 
women as easily as they might have killed a flock of 
sheep, and with no more pity. 
The native soldiers got word of 
what was going on. In a just 
rage they rushed at the Spaniards, 
killed all they could, and shut the 
others up in their quarters. But 
for Montezuma, who told the Az¬ 
tecs to stop fighting, these wicked 
guests would have received the 
punishment they so well deserved. 

Cortes returned. He blamed 
Montezuma, and used rough lan¬ 
guage to him. Montezuma then 
refused to urge his people any 
more to keep the peace. After 
that he was secretly killed. 

Now that there was no gentle 
king to keep them back, the Az¬ 
tecs attacked their foes with great 
fury. They killed so many that Cortes thought it best 
to leave the city. 

One night, under cover of a heavy rain storm, the 
Spaniards, loading themselves with gold, tried to with¬ 
draw. They reached the causeway unseen. Suddenly 



A Stone Idol of the Aztecs 
It is more than eight feet high 
and five feet across, and was 
dug up in the central square of 
the City of Mexico more than 
one hundred years ago. 


HERNANDO CORTES 


117 

the great gong of the temple sounded the alarm. The 
Indian warriors swarmed about them on every side. The 
Spaniards, hampered by their burdens of gold, fell into 
the second opening of the causeway. Soon the dead 
bodies of their comrades and of their allies formed a 
bridge on which those behind crossed over. All order 
was lost. Each man, throwing away his treasure, 
fought for his own life. Very few who started out that 
stormy night escaped. Those who remained behind 
were no better off. They were overcome and sacrificed 
on the altars of the temple. 

It now looked to everyone except Cortes as though he 
would have to give up his idea of conquering Mexico. He 
was as determined as ever. 

Other white men came to Mexico from time to time 
and were added to the forces of Cortes. He made friends 
with more of the tribes who hated the Aztecs. When 
he thought he had an army large enough, he went back 
to the shores of the lake. 

There was a new ruler in Mexico, who had always 
hated the white men. He strengthened the city and 
urged all the natives to fight the robber strangers. 

In spite of repeated attacks on his workmen, Cortes 
succeeded in building thirteen ships. The Aztecs in 
their frail canoes could do nothing to stop these strong 
vessels. Consequently, a company of soldiers reached 
the causeway. The Indians fought bravely every inch 
of the way as they were forced back into the town. 

Being unable to take the city in battle, Cortes tried 


ii8 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


to stop all food from entering it. He had already cut 
the great tube that carried fresh water from the hills 
into the town. The brave defenders were soon weakened 
from want of enough to eat and to drink. But still they 
held out. Cortes offered to spare the city if the ruler and 

his people would agree 
to become subjects of the 
King of Spain. The chief 
remembered what had 
happened to Montezuma 
and his answer was, 
“No!” 

After more terrible 
fighting, Cortes offered 
to let them go free if 
they would give up the 
city. The only answer 
they gave him was a 
sharp attack on his army. 

Cortes now made a 
new plan. The three 
parts of the army were 
to advance on the capital 
from the three cause¬ 
ways. As fast as the white men and their Indian 
allies took any part of the city, they were to tear down 
the buildings, ruin the streets, and fill the canals with 
rubbish. This they did. Neither houses, palaces, nor 
temples were spared. They reached the market place. 



The Armor op Cortes 
After an engraving of the original in 
the National Museum, Madrid 


HERNANDO CORTES 


119 

In this great square and in the near-by streets were 
huddled together chiefs and slaves, men and women, 
children and animals. Too feeble to fight, and having 
no weapons to fight with if they had been able to use them, 
they were swept down by the cannon fire of their enemies. 

Not one yielded. Some tried to escape by way of the 
lake. Among them was the king. He was taken, and 
then the Aztecs gave up. 

But they would not remain in the city. Before leaving 
it, they threw everything of value into the lake or buried 
it where it was never found. Cortes had nothing but 
dead bodies and a heap of ruins for his reward. He had 
ruined the city to win it. 

The King of Spain made Cortes governor, and all 
Mexico became a Spanish province. But Cortes could 
not bear to stay quietly at home while his comrades were 
away seeking new adventures. So he started out again, 
but he never found any treasure to equal that lost in the 
city of the Aztecs. 


MAGELLAN AND THE FIRST TRIP AROUND 
THE WORLD 

This is the story of a mountain lad who grew up to be 
one of the four greatest sailors of the world. Some his¬ 
torians think he was the greatest of the four — Columbus, 
Da Gama, Magellan, and Drake. 

When Columbus made his famous discovery, Ferdinand 
Magellan was twelve years old. We know very little 
about him till we hear of him as a young man at the court 
of the King of Portugal. There he must have learned 
about Columbus and other great men who were seeking 
and finding new wonders on this old earth of ours. He 
spent many happy hours in the home of Vasco da Gama, 
where he heard from that bold sailor himself how the 
water route to India had been found. 

These stories of brave adventure made him want to do 
something of the same kind. So he joined a fleet that 
was sailing to the East Indies. After several years 
spent in fighting the natives, in order that the King of 
Portugal might control the trade of those islands, he 
returned. TJie King, making one excuse or another, 
refused to reward him for what he had done, or to give 
him anything more to do. 

Magellan spent the next two or three years in the 
capital of his country without work of any kind. But 
he used the time in studying geography and in talking 


120 


FERDINAND MAGELLAN 


121 


with travelers. It was during this time that a great 
thought came to him. He thought he could prove what 
Columbus had believed, — that the earth is shaped like 
a ball. How ? He would sail around it! 

He had gone to India over the same course that Da 
Gama had sailed. But now, he said to himself, he would 
go to India, and what is more, 
find the Spice Islands, by sailing 
westward. Only, by this time, 
men knew what Columbus did 
not know when he started, that 
there is a great body of land 
in the way. Never mind; he 
would find a passage through 
South America or he would go 
around the end of it as Da 
Gama had gone around the end 
of Africa. He did not know, 
however, that there was any 
such passage, nor how long the 
land of South America might be, nor how many miles 
of water there are on the other side of it. 

With this great plan in his mind, he went to the king 
and asked him to help carry it through. He fared no 
better than Columbus had with the king’s father. Then, 
like Columbus, he went to Spain. 

After much persuasion the King of Spain promised to 
furnish five ships and two hundred men to enable Magel¬ 
lan to test the correctness of his idea. 



Ferdinand Magellan 


From a portrait formerly in the 
Versailles Gallery, Paris 


122 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Though he would not help Magellan, the King of 
Portugal was very angry when he heard that one of his 
subjects was to make a voyage under the direction of the 
King of Spain, because any new land that Magellan 
might find would belong to Spain instead of to Portugal. 
Consequently, he tried to prevent the success of Ma¬ 
gellan’s scheme. Agents were sent to coax or frighten or 
bribe Magellan into giving up his preparations for the 
voyage. When they failed, others were hired to kill 
him. On the other hand, Spaniards were jealous of him 
and did not want to sail under a foreign commander. 
But in spite of all efforts to hinder him, Magellan was at 
last ready to start on the first trip around the world. 

The flag-ship, with Magellan on board, was always to 
lead. Whatever course she took, the others were to 
follow. That they might be able to do so at night, a 
lantern was to be kept burning in the stern of the vessel. 

Steadily following the flag by day and the light by 
night, the little fleet of five ships made its way through 
storms and sunshine, calms and gales, across the Atlantic 
to South America. 

Magellan landed in Brazil the same year that the Span¬ 
iards under Cortes landed in Mexico. But his was to be 
a conquest far different from that of Cortes. Wherever 
Magellan landed in all his long journey, he met the 
friendly natives with kindness, and made fair bargains 
with them for the provisions they brought to his ships. 
He never took away from them by force or by fraud, the 
few golden ornaments they had. Nor, much to the dis- 


FERDINAND MAGELLAN 


123 


pleasure of his Spanish captains, would he spend his 
time searching for gold. He was looking for something 
more valuable than gold or silver — a western route to 
the Spice Islands and the way around the world. 

At this first landing place the natives were soon so 
unafraid that they climbed into and out of every nook 
and corner of the vessels and capered about on them 
like children at play. They exchanged chickens — five 
of them for a fish-hook — fruit, and sweet potatoes, for 
pins, needles, and mirrors. 

Though the natives were inclined to be thievish, Ma¬ 
gellan would not let them be harmed on that account. 
One morning a girl came to the flag-ship alone. No one 
took any notice of her and she wandered about examin¬ 
ing everything to her heart’s content, till she saw a nail 
lying on the cabin floor. She looked at it, walked around 
it, and, when she thought the captain did not see her, 
suddenly stooped and picked it up. Not having on any 
dress in which she might hide the nail, she thrust it into 
her thick, black hair and ran away. The natives, you 
see, were as greedy for iron as the Spaniards were for gold. 

Magellan did not stay here very long. He wanted to 
go on, ever southward, till he found the end of the land 
or a way through it. But the southern winter was close 
at hand, so after a few months he put into a harbor not 
far from the passage he sought, though, of course, he did 
not know that. Here the men became unruly. They 
wanted to return to Spain. Magellan would not listen 
to such a thing. He had promised the king to find the 


124 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Spice Islands by sailing west, and he intended to keep 
his word. The captains declared they would go back 
without him, and in spite of him. 

When the Spanish captains had slighted him and said 
insulting things about him on the way over, Magellan 
paid no attention to them. Now that they threatened 
to spoil the success of the voyage by taking part of the 
fleet back to Spain, he soon showed them that he was 
master. One of the captains was hanged and two of them 
were kept in chains till the ship sailed in the spring. 
Then they were left behind on the lonely shore. After a 
while, the seamen they had misled were forgiven and 
sent back to work. 

While staying in these winter quarters, the crews were 
surprised one day to see, on a neighboring hill-top, a 
native warrior who looked to them as big as a giant. 
He began to dance and howl (perhaps he thought he was 
singing) in a most unaccountable fashion. At first 
Magellan did not know what to make of his antics, but 
concluded that the warrior intended them as signs of good 
will. He sent a sailor up the hill to imitate the actions 
of the giant. Those on board the ships were soon hold¬ 
ing their sides with laughter while they watched the 
warrior and the sailor try to outdo each other in noise 
and activity, as they circled around each other in this 
wild dance. 

The poor sailor, I am afraid, did not share the enjoy¬ 
ment of his comrades. For he had no means of knowing 
that he would not be picked up and carried off to the 


FERDINAND MAGELLAN 


125 


woods, there to be killed and eaten by this hideous giant. 
But he was a mild kind of giant, after all. When they 
at last came together, he only hugged the sailor and then 
went back to the ship with him. 



An Old Map of the New World —1523 
After Magellan’s voyage, but before the exploration of North America 
had gone far 


There the native had a good time looking at the won¬ 
ders of the strange vessel, until he came face to face with 
a giant just as big and just as ugly as himself. This so 
startled him that he jumped back with such force and 
suddenness as to upset three or four of the sailors who 












126 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


were following him to see the fun. He had merely 
walked up to a large steel mirror. Magellan gave him a 
small one to soothe his feelings for being frightened at 
the sight of himself. I do not know what he gave the sea¬ 
men to soothe the pain of the bumps they received from 
being toppled over on the floor like so many ninepins. 

When the winter was over, this band of pathfinders 
resumed their journey, but with only four vessels, as one 
of them had been lost in a storm. 

Now Magellan’s faith and courage and determination 
were to be rewarded. Entering a broad inlet, he could 
not say it was not the mouth of a river till the vessel 
sent to find out came back at the end of five days. The 
captain reported that as far as they had gone, the water 
was salt and the waves as rough as those of the ocean. 
Such rejoicing and thanksgiving as there was among 
those sea-weary travelers! It was, indeed, the long- 
sought strait. But they did not know, as you and I do 
now, that the Strait of Magellan is three hundred miles 
long and very crooked. Many a day passed before they 
reached the western end of it. When they did, there 
were but three ships. The cowardly captain of the 
fourth one had run away to Spain. 

I am sure Magellan and his men felt well paid for their 
hardships when they found themselves at the other end 
of the strait connecting the Atlantic with an unknown 
ocean. It was to be an unknown ocean no longer; for 
now they were to sail the first European ships on it and 
later make it known to the whole world. 


FERDINAND MAGELLAN 


127 


But this was not to be till they had braved dangers 
greater than those they had passed. The dangers were 
not those of the sea, however. That was so calm and 
free from storms while they sailed week after week, to¬ 
ward the setting sun, that Magellan named it the Pacific 
Ocean. 

The voyage was so much longer than he expected it to 
be that the food gave out. The water became slimy and 



of such a vile odor that no man could drink it without 
holding his nose. Then a dreadful sickness overtook 
them and several men died every day. Magellan never 
complained, nor became ill-tempered with the men. He 
helped to nurse the sick and shared in all the hard work 
that was to be done. 

No wonder they all fell upon their knees and gave 
thanks at the sight of the waving palm trees of an island 
that rose above the blue of the sea. Scores of canoes 
came skimming over the sparkling water to meet them. 
The canoes were filled with naked little brown men, 








128 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


offering bunches of rich yellow bananas, and shells filled 
with delicious coconut milk, to these starving wanderers 
from the other side of the world. The dark-skinned 
strangers came fearlessly aboard the big vessels, and as 
fearlessly helped themselves to everything they could 
lay their hands on. They even cut loose the small boat 
trailing at the stern of the flag-ship, and made off with it. 
Magellan gave the islands a Spanish name which means 
“ Robber Islands,” by which they are still known. 

He tarried a short time among these islands, and then 
pushed forward. Though he had crossed the unknown 
ocean, he could not rest till he had found the Spice 
Islands and carried back to Spain the news of the path 
around the world. A sail of a few days beyond the 
Robber Islands brought him to the group we now call 
the Philippine Islands. Since Magellan was the first to 
find them, they belonged to Spain, which owned them 
from that time till the United States bought them nearly 
four hundred years afterward. 

Magellan landed on one of the islands, and the king, 
who also ruled several of the surrounding islands, gave 
him a friendly welcome. He was soon so eager to be on 
good terms with the white men that he called himself and 
his people Christians. Magellan showed his gentle spirit 
by using no harsh means to compel the natives to change 
their faith. But he told them that if they really wished 
to be Christians, they must burn their idols. They did 
so at once. 

The chief of a neighboring island would not burn his 


FERDINAND MAGELLAN 


129 


idols, and refused to obey the king any longer. Ma¬ 
gellan, to show what the white man would do to help his 
brown brother of the same faith, undertook to punish 
the unruly subject of the friendly king. With only sixty 
men he crossed over to the island of the rebel chief. 
Thousand of warriors surrounded 
them. For a time, the Spaniards 
kept the natives at a distance. 

The natives noticed that their 
foes wore no armor on their legs. 

They then aimed their arrows and 
spears only at the legs of the white 
men. In this way they disabled 
so many of Magellan’s soldiers 
that he gave the order to retreat 
slowly toward the boats. 

When the native warriors saw 
that the enemy was yielding 
ground, they became bolder and 
fiercer than ever. To give his 



in a battle with the natives of 
the Philippine Islands 


Magellan Monument on 
Mactan Island 
This monument marks the 
men a chance to reach the boats, spot where Magellan was killed 

Magellan made a stand against 
the victors. He held them back 
for an hour. A wound in the arm prevented him from 
drawing his sword. Seeing that, the natives rushed on 
him in great numbers. He fell, covered with wounds. 
His men never saw him again. 

And so this brave sailor captain never finished the trip 
around the world, which he had planned in far-away 









i 3 o GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

Spain. But he did prove that the earth is round and 
that the Spice Islands can be reached by sailing west. 
For one of his ships, the Victory, several months after 
the death of Magellan, arrived at those islands. Before 
it departed the ship was loaded with cloves, nutmegs, and 
ginger. 

Slowly the worn-out old vessel made its way across the 
Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope, and up 
the coast of Africa. In September of 1522, the captain 
and his crew of eighteen men stepped ashore at the port 
they had left three years before. 

And so ended the greatest voyage ever made. 



The “Victory 


PIZARRO, WHO TOOK THEIR CROWN AWAY 
FROM THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN 


A long time ago, if you had been passing through a 
certain town in Spain, you might have seen a tall, poorly 
dressed lad listening eagerly to a grizzled old sailor. The 
boy was Francisco Pizarro, and he was hearing about 
the wonderful discovery of a New 
World from one who had sailed 
with Columbus. 

Francisco was very poor and 
had been made to tend pigs ever 
since he was a tiny child. He had 
no time to play, and if he made a 
mistake he was severely beaten. 

Worse yet, he was not allowed to 
go to school. So, though he was Francisco Pizarro 
now thirteen years old, he could After a painting at Lima, 
neither read nor write. But for 

all that, Pizarro wanted to do great deeds. As he lis¬ 
tened to the sailor’s tale of Columbus, he made up his 
mind that he would no longer be a swineherd. At 
the first chance he had, he ran away and enlisted as 
a soldier. 

By the time Cortes had conquered Mexico, Pizarro 
had become a brave captain, and was living in a comfort- 



132 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


able house in Panama. But he was impatient to do 
something that would make him very rich and famous. 

One day a traveler told him about the snow-capped 
mountains far to the south, and about the Land of Gold 
that was said to be hidden behind them. Pizarro lost 
no time in making ready to find this unknown country 
so that he might take for himself as much of its wealth as 
he could. It does not seem to have entered his mind 
that the Indians were the only people who had any right 
to the gold and silver in their own land. Or, if it did, 
he probably thought they were only heathens, and so not 
entitled to keep what stronger men could take. 

He obtained two small vessels and one hundred twelve 
men. With this little force the bold Pizarro put out to 
sea on his way to overcome a nation of — nobody knew 
how many. 

On the voyage down the coast they ran into stormy 
weather that lasted a week, and nearly wrecked the ships. 
By the end of that time the food had given out, so that 
these brave seamen, having escaped drowning, were likely 
to be starved. Fortunately, they found a harbor. But 
it was in a barren spot, and the natives were unfriendly. 
As his ships were damaged, and as he had but eighty men 
left, Pizarro was obliged to return to Panama. 

Nothing daunted by the first failure, Pizarro, with the 
help of two good friends, was ready to start again two 
years later. 

This time he landed farther down the coast than be¬ 
fore. He sent one of the ships back for more men and 


FRANCISCO PIZARRO 


133 


supplies while he tried to make his way by land. The 
little band struggled through forests so thick that no 
daylight entered. They floundered in tangled marshes 
where they were stung by poisonous snakes or dragged 
down into the mud by alligators. Sometimes they were 
so tormented by dense swarms of big mosquitoes that 



A Scene on Pizarro’s Route 
From Charnay’s “Ancient Cities of the New World” 


they buried themselves up to their faces in sand. At 
other times they were attacked by hostile savages. Such 
as escaped these dangers returned to the port, where 
they stayed until the relief ship arrived. 

When they were on board once more, they steered to 
the south again. One morning they spied a village on the 
coast and went in closer. Pizarro and a few soldiers 
landed. As they left the boats, a large force of Indians 
appeared, armed with javelins, bows, and clubs. Before 


134 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


they had time to attack, one of the Spaniards accidentally 
fell from his horse. The Indians had never seen a horse. 
They took the horse and his rider to be one animal. 
Such a strange creature was terrifying enough in itself. 
But when, as they supposed, the animal suddenly sepa¬ 
rated into two, they were so frightened that they ran 
back to the town as fast as they could. Pizarro decided 
that, having so few men, it was just as well for him not 
to stay very long either, so he quickly went on board and 
continued the voyage. 

Three weeks after this adventure, the ship bearing 
Pizarro and eleven soldiers entered a quiet bay. An 
Indian that Pizarro had persuaded to join the company 
farther up the coast, pointed to the near-by shore and 
said it belonged to the Children of the Sun. Then 
Pizarro knew he was looking at the border of the longed- 
for Land of Gold. But with only eleven men he could 
do nothing. So back to Panama he sailed for the second 
time. Instead of helping him to get men and ships, the 
Governor of Panama hindered him in every way. Then 
Pizarro went to Spain to see the king. 

As presents to the king, he took with him two or three 
llamas. They are the sheep of Peru. He also took 
many gold and silver ornaments, and many yards of the 
soft, silk-like cloth made from the wool of the llama and 
brightly colored. 

This visit to the chief city of Spain was very different 
from that of twenty-five years before, when he was a 
ragged runaway. Now he was a tall, dark-eyed man 


FRANCISCO PIZARRO 


*35 


with sun-browned face and jet black hair and beard. In 
his fine jacket and shining steel breastplate, with a long 
sword hanging by his side, he looked the brave captain 
he was. 

The king was delighted with the beautiful presents. 
He told Pizarro to take all the ships and soldiers he 
needed to conquer this won¬ 
derland and add it to the 
king’s domain. It seems that 
the King of Spain, like Pizarro, 
thought he had a right to any¬ 
thing he could take. 

The ruler of Peru, the 
Land of Gold, was called the 
Inca. He and all his rela¬ 
tives called themselves Chil¬ 
dren of the Sun. 

Upon his return to Peru, Pizarro learned that the Inca 
was encamped with his army between Cuzco (. Kooz'ko ) 
and the coast. Cuzco was the capital of Peru, and 
Pizarro meant to go there. But he did not start for 
several weeks, hoping to have more soldiers join him. 
As none came, he resolved to go on with those he had. 
It was a brave and daring deed to push into an unknown 
country with not more than two hundred men, and with 
no hope of any outside help. 

Mile after mile tramped the little company of fortune 
hunters. They suffered from the hot sun of the plains, 
which heated their heavy steel armor, and the cold wind 



i 3 6 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

of the mountain peaks, which chilled it. But nowhere 
were they molested by the natives. On the contrary, 
the Indians brought them food and presents, and treated 
them like welcome visitors. And for some time the 
Spaniards behaved like guests, doing no harm and tak¬ 
ing only what was given to them. But then, a great 
deal was given to them, — gold, emeralds, llamas, dried 
fruits, pepper, and perfume. Nevertheless, Pizarro meant 
to conquer this friendly people and seize their wealth as 
soon as he could safely do so. 

Having entered a town on the slope of a pleasant 
valley not far from the camp of the ruler, Pizarro invited 
the Inca to come to a feast to be given in the Spanish 
quarters. The Inca sent word that he might be expected 
the next day. 

It was a strange preparation that Pizarro made to re¬ 
ceive his royal visitor. Little bells were tied to the 
harness of the horses. They, and their riders in full 
armor, filled the long, low buildings that formed two 
sides of the square. The footmen filled the buildings on 
the other side. The gunmen were sent to the fortress at 
one corner. No man was to stir from his place till 
Pizarro gave a certain signal. When everything was 
ready, the square was empty of all save Pizarro and a 
few officers. 

With an escort of 60,000 men, the Inca approached. 
The escort parted ranks. The Inca, on a litter made of 
gold and silver, and carried by the chief men of the 
country, passed between the columns thus formed, A 


FRANCISCO PIZARRO 


137 


red fringe, which was the sign of his rank, hung over his 
forehead. Above it nodded two rare plumes. A broad 
collar of gleaming emeralds encircled his throat. 

In the center of the square, the litter bearers stopped. 
The Inca’s followers poured in after him till the square 
could hold no more of them. A priest, having a cross in 
one hand and a Bible in the other, came forward. He 
urged the Inca to become a 
Christian, and the friend and 
subject of the great king across 
the water. The Inca said, “ I 
will be the faithful friend of 
my brother across the sea. 

But I am the Child of the 
Sun, and will be no man’s 
subject.” He took the Bible, 
looked at it, and threw it 
carelessly aside. It fell to the 
ground. The priest ran to 
Pizarro and demanded that 
one so disrespectful to the 
Bible should be punished. No 
one was permitted to touch the Inca or even to go close 
to him at any time. But Pizarro now hurried toward the 
litter, pushed through the guard, and grasped the Inca’s 
arm. At the same time he waved a white scarf. In¬ 
stantly, the men in the fort began to shoot, the horsemen 
and footmen rushed out of the buildings into the square. 
They cut down and trampled upon the unarmed Indians 



Houses in Cuzco Today 
Built upon the old Inca walls 


i3 8 great deeds of great men 

without mercy. The sound of the bells, the noise of the 
guns, and the blare of the trumpets added to the con¬ 
fusion of the natives. They could make no defense, 
and only a few of the thousands in the square escaped 
with their lives. 

The Inca, who had come as a guest, was obliged to 
remain as a prisoner. His life was spared because Pizarro 
knew he had little to fear from the people so long as he 
could punish them by killing the Inca. 

Two months after this evil deed, the Spaniards, travel¬ 
ing over one of the good roads that ran through the 
country, reached Cuzco. They felt rewarded for their 
hardships when they saw the riches of this heathen city. 
It seemed to them like finding Aladdin’s cave. There 
was the Inca’s palace, a low stone building, not much to 
look at from the outside. Inside, the walls were hung 
with gorgeous cloth, and with plates of precious metal 
which took the place of pictures. The Inca’s throne 
was of solid gold. The statues were of gold and silver. 
The dishes were of gold and some of them were set with 
gems. In the garden, among the real flowers, were 
imitation flowers made of gold or silver. In the court¬ 
yard was a golden bath, into which the water flowed 
through silver pipes. 

But the real wonder of the city was the Temple of the 
Sun. On the western wall of the temple there was an 
enormous disk of polished gold with a human face carved 
on it to represent the sun. Glittering rays of the same 
metal all around the disk reached up to the ceiling and 


FRANCISCO PIZARRO 


1 39 


down to the floor. From the brilliant gems on the face 
of the image darted beams of rainbow-colored light. 
The other walls were covered with golden ornaments of 
various shapes. Everything used in the worship of the 
idol was made of gold. 



Ruins of an Inca Palace 


All these precious things, except some of the strangest 
and most costly articles, which were saved for the king, 
the Spaniards melted and cast into bars of solid gold. 
After Pizarro had received his share of these bars, the 
remainder was divided among the captains and soldiers. 
Nobody thought it worth while to leave anything for the 
owners, who had received these strangers so kindly. 

Cuzco was too far from the sea to be a good capital 
for Pizarro. He built near the coast a new city, which he 









i 4 o GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

named Lima. Many Spaniards, hearing how easy it was 
to become rich in Peru, came to live in Lima. They 
came in greater numbers than ever when the mines from 
which the Incas got their silver were discovered, and soon 
there were several Spanish cities in the Land of Gold. 

What became of the Inca? Pizarro caused him to be 
burned to death as a punishment for telling the Indians 
to fight against the Spaniards in order to set him free. 

And what became of Pizarro? When he was an old 
man, he was killed in his own house by the friends of one 
of his former companions to whom he had done some 
wrong. 

Perhaps you have noticed that all the conquerors I 
have told you about, except Cortes and Pizarro, were 
already kings in their own country or became kings over 
the countries they conquered. The great territories won 
by these two men belonged to the king whose subjects 
they were, and the conquered peoples became his sub¬ 
jects also. 

Although Pizarro did not keep their crown for himself, 
the Children of the Sun never got it back again, and the 
Land of Gold remained a part of the Spanish Empire for 
three hundred years. 


FRANCIS DRAKE AND THE SECOND TRIP 
AROUND THE WORLD 

Back in the sixteenth century it happened that an 
English family named Drake were driven from their 
home in Devon. They found refuge in Plymouth, where 
the father obtained a position as “reader of prayers to 
the royal navy.” He and his family were given a home 
in an old naval vessel anchored in the harbor. One of 
his twelve boys, Francis, passed much of his childhood 
here, afloat. The masts of warships, fishing smacks, 
and trading vessels stood around in the bay almost as 
numerous as trees in a forest. It is not surprising that 
Francis Drake, raised in such surroundings, should love 
the sea. 

The father had hoped to put his sons into the navy, 
but he lost his position and the boys were forced to 
find work wherever they could. Francis became ship’s- 
boy on a coasting vessel that ran to France and Holland. 
He heard much bitter talk from captains and sailors 
about the cruelty of the Spaniards to their subjects in 
the Netherlands. These stories made him dislike the 
Spanish so much that he tried to punish them by destroy¬ 
ing their ships and robbing their settlements, when he 
grew up. 

Reports of the newly found islands across the Atlantic, 


142 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


and of the rich treasures of the Spanish Main, as the 
Caribbean Sea was then called, made Drake tired of 
“ creeping along the shore.” He dreamed of long voy¬ 
ages to far-off lands and of great adventures there. Some 
of these dreams were soon to come true. 

With a fleet of six ships he went out to Africa to 
get negroes. These were taken to the West Indies to be 
sold as slaves. When the fleet was starting for home, 
a storm drove them into the harbor of Vera Cruz 
( Ve'ra Krooz). Here was a large Spanish merchant 
fleet, laden with gold and silver, and convoyed by war¬ 
ships. Peace was agreed upon between them, but the 
Spaniards, nevertheless, attacked the English. Drake’s 
ship and one other were all that escaped safely to Eng¬ 
land. You can imagine how hard he tried to get Eliza¬ 
beth, now queen of England, to declare war on Spain. 
But she would not, so he decided to take the matter of 
revenge into his own hands. 

For the next two years he sailed the Spanish Main, 
looking carefully over the ground, and making his plans. 
His scheme was to capture the great Spanish treasure 
cities in the West Indies and Central America. The 
Queen did not dare to help him openly, as she wished 
England to remain at peace with Spain. But she secretly 
gave a good deal toward the cost of the expedition. He 
took only two ships, with seventy-three men, but they 
were well supplied with arms and ammunition, and with 
everything needed for a long voyage. 

Drake took much plunder on land, and more from two 


FRANCIS DRAKE 


143 


hundred captured Spanish vessels. You may well sup¬ 
pose that all this was not done without great trouble 
and danger. When it was time to return, there were 
left only enough sailors and soldiers to man one ship, so 
Drake gave the other one to his Spanish prisoners and 
set them free. This does not seem like the act of a 
bloodthirsty, merciless pi¬ 
rate, does it? Surely, he 
was not always as bad as 
some people would have 
us believe. 

While Drake was on the 
Isthmus of Panama, he 
caught sight of the Pacific 
Ocean. “ Sinking on his 
knees, he prayed Almighty 
God of His goodness to 
give him life and leave to 
sail Once in an English SlR Francis Drake 

ship on that sea!” From After the painting at Buckland Abbe y> 

1 England 

then on, he had this desire 

added to his old one to beat Spain. But when he returned 
to England, he found the Queen’s advisers friendly toward 
the Spanish. It was four years before she would listen to 
his plan of going to the Pacific. Even then she kept her 
support a secret. Where the fleet of five ships was 
bound had to be kept a secret from the crews, too. 
They did not share Drake’s longing to make such a 
perilous voyage. 



144 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


When they reached the northern coast of Africa, 
Drake reduced his fleet to three ships, and started boldly 
across the Atlantic for the Strait of Magellan. A storm 
drove them into the harbor where Magellan had anchored 
for the winter on that famous first trip around the world, 
fifty-seven years earlier, and where he had been obliged 
to punish the Spanish captains for their disloyalty to 
him. The very gibbet on which one of them had been 
hanged was still there. 

Drake’s meeting with the “giants” was neither so 
amusing nor so pleasant as Magellan’s had been. After 
a* friendly contest to prove whether the giants or the 
sailors were the better shots with a bow and arrow, the 
giants attacked the Englishmen unawares and killed two 
of them. 

There was much quarreling among the men, who did 
not yet know where they were going. Drake gathered 
them on shore, told his plans, and said they must all 
pull together. He offered to let any who wanted to leave 
take one of the ships and return to England. “But,” 
he added, “let them take heed that they go homeward; 
for if I find them in my way, I will surely sink them.” 
They all agreed to stand by him. 

They battled southward for six weeks through almost 
continuous heavy storms. Threading their difficult way 
through the Strait of Magellan, they at last reached the 
entrance to the Pacific. Drake’s prayer for “fife and 
leave” to sail an English ship on the “peaceful” ocean 
had been granted. 


Map of Drake’s Voyage 



(i45) 











i 4 6 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Instead of going home, he decided to look for a north¬ 
west passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific. 
Twice the gallant little flag-ship and its two companions 
started north. Twice the violent winds that snapped the 
masts and stripped the sails drove them south. The 
Golden Hind drifted down to the very last island at the 
end of the continent. That is how Drake happened to 
find Cape Horn and to find that Magellan’s way is not 
the only way to the Pacific. He climbed to the top of 
the high cliff forming the cape, and stretched out his 
hands over the waters of the two oceans. 

Two days later the Golden Hind was once more on her 
way. She sailed north along the coast of South America, 
past the place where Pizarro had landed to begin his con¬ 
quest of Peru. 

And now Drake the seeker and finder again became 
Drake the pirate. He seized many Spanish galleons, 
and plundered every settlement along the shore. Laden 
with the rich spoils, it was a question whether to turn 
back or to venture further. Perhaps he had an idea that 
the Spaniards were lying in wait for him at the Strait of 
Magellan, as they were. At any rate, he decided to go 
on, see if he could find the Northwest Passage, and go 
home that way. 

Heavy, freezing storms kept him from getting very far 
north. After lying in a harbor near what is now San 
Francisco, he set out to cross the Pacific. From one of 
the captured vessels he had taken secret charts by which 
the Spanish trade was guided across this ocean. These 


FRANCIS DRAKE 


147 

were really of far greater value than his wonderful cargo 
of gold and silver. 

After many perils and terrible hardships, he reached 
the Indies. There was still ahead a longer trip than 
that return voyage of Vasco da Gama. But they made 
it, and got back to 
Plymouth nea-rly 
three years after the 
time they had left it. 

Drake sent the 
Queen the choicest of 
the treasures he had 
captured. She order¬ 
ed the Golden Hind 
to be taken up the 
Thames, and honored 
it with a visit. Then, 
at a great banquet 
held on board, she 
knighted her “favor¬ 
ite pirate.” 

And so ended the 
second trip around the world. A wonderful voyage it 
was, though, unlike the first one, it had not been planned 
from the beginning. 

Drake, ever restless, longed to build up the English 
navy into a great weapon of war, and to show what it 
could do. He did not have to wait long for the chance. 
Philip of Spain seized a fleet of English grain-ships trad- 



Queen Elizabeth making Drake a Knight 








i 4 8 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


ing in Spanish ports. Drake was given orders to attack 
the settlements on the Spanish Main. He was furnished 
with thirty ships and two thousand soldiers and sailors, 
a great fleet for those days. All the important places 
were skilfully captured. But* the Spaniards had been 
wise enough to remove all the treasure, so there was 
little plunder. Besides, Drake had lost many of his 
best men, mostly through illness. It was necessary to 
return home. 

And now came rumors that King Philip was preparing 
a vast Armada ( Ar-ma'da ) to invade and conquer Eng¬ 
land. Drake disliked waiting for the enemy to come. 
With five battleships, nine gunboats, and nine cruisers, 
he sailed down to the harbor of Cadiz ( Ka'diz ). Here, 
without losing a single man, he burned or captured 
thirty-six ships. He also showed that the great Spanish 
galleys were not the “ Dreadnaughts ” they were sup¬ 
posed to be. With their banks of rowers along the 
sides, they could fire only straight ahead as they came 
on abreast. And they were very powerful against an 
enemy that fought the same way. This Drake did not 
do. He would slip away from in front, and then pour 
broadsides into them. 

Learning from captured Spaniards that Philip, who 
was now also King of Portugal, planned to gather his 
Armada at Lisbon, Drake went to a bay near there, 
waiting to attack them if they came out. He longed 
to go in after them, but dared not because he had re¬ 
ceived orders not to do anything that would mean a 


FRANCIS DRAKE 


149 


declaration of war on the part of England. He tried to 
taunt the Spanish admiral into coming out into open 
water and fighting. This was of no use, so he sailed for 
the Azores, capturing one of the King’s own merchant 
ships, with a million dollar cargo. It was this capture 
that stirred up the English to form the East India Com- 



The Spanish Armada in the English Channel 
Alter an engraving by the Society of Antiquarians following a tapestry in 
the House of Lords 


pany, which, long afterward, sent out the man who won 
India for England. 

The Armada was a wonderful sight when it did appear 
off the English coast. The one hundred and forty 
vessels, crowded with soldiers, made a line seven miles 
long. But the Spaniards depended upon the old-fash¬ 
ioned way of fighting. The sailors were not prepared to 














GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


150 

fight at all, and the soldiers did not think much of the 
big guns. Let them grapple with the enemy, and get 
on board, then they would soon beat those Englishmen. 
But those same Englishmen, under the advice of Drake, 
did not see fit to fight that way. They had the same 
number of vessels as the Spanish, but the English ships 
were smaller and faster, and carried more and larger 
guns for their size. The men were prepared both to 
sail the ships and to fight the enemy, but they would not 
come to close quarters. 

For a week they battled, drifting down to Dover 
Strait. There, in the night, Drake sent eight fire-boats 
floating in among the enemy fleet. They slipped anchors 
and ran. The English pursued, catching up with them 
the next morning. All day they continued to worry 
them. We do not know whether the punishment they 
received, or the fierce storm that came up, was the cause 
of what followed. But this is certain; the Spanish 
Armada now fled in earnest, running northward. The 
Spaniards went clear around Scotland and Ireland in 
order to reach home, and only fifty-three of their ships 
ever arrived. Not an English ship was lost. 

Not content with the glory this great victory brought 
him, Drake longed to revisit the Spanish Main. He led 
an expedition there, but was soon taken ill, and died. 

“The body was carried out a league to sea, and there, 
in sight of the spot where his first victory had been cele¬ 
brated, amidst a lament of trumpets and the thunder of 
cannon, the sea received her own again. At his side 


FRANCIS DRAKE 


151 

were sunk two of his ships, for which there was no longer 
need, and all his latest prizes, and for a pall he had the 
smoke of the latest fort which his life-long enemy had 
raised against him. So the fleet went on its way and left 
him lying like a Viking, dead and alone amidst his trophies, 
on the scene of his earliest triumphs and his last defeat.” 



Spanish Treasure Shtp 



ROBERT CLIVE, A CLERK WHO WON INDIA 
FOR ENGLAND 

After Da Gama found the water way to India, Eu¬ 
ropeans settled along the coast of that country from time 
to time in order to trade with the natives. About the 
middle of the eighteenth century, when our story begins, 
the English had a trading station at Madras. The 
French had a settlement a little to the south of Madras. 
Both France and England paid rent to the native prince, 
or nabob, for the land they occupied. The rent also 
paid for native soldiers, called sepoys, to guard the 
settlements. 

With the help of steamship, railroad, and Suez Canal, 
a merchant can now go from England to India in less 
than a month. When Robert Clive was a young man, a 
traveler could go only in a sailing vessel, and around the 
end of Africa, just as Da Gama did. He would need 
nine months to make the trip — if he had good luck. 

Robert Clive had bad luck. He left England one fine 
spring morning in a ship bound for Madras. Bad 
weather disabled the vessel and it was driven across the 
Atlantic into a port in Brazil, where it stayed for nine 
months. Upon reaching the Cape of Good Hope, it 
was delayed again. When Robert at last reached India, 
he was nearly a year and a half older than when he 
started from home. 


ROBERT CLIVE 


153 


Clive went to Madras as a clerk for the East India 
Trading Company. He expected to have some kind of 
outdoor work to do. Instead of that, he had to stay in 
an office all day, checking up bills and counting bales. 
Clive heartily dis¬ 
liked this kind of 
work, although he 
did not know exact¬ 
ly what kind he 
would like to do. 

Two years after 
he reached India, 

France and England 
declared war against 
each other. The 
French in India 
thought this a good 
time to drive the Robert Clive 

English out and get 

all the trade for themselves. They captured Madras, 
made prisoners of the English, with many of their sepoys, 
and sent them to the French settlements. 

Clive, dressed like a native, escaped to the English 
fort of St. David. The French attacked the fort. Clive 
fought bravely, and was so active that he seemed to be 
everywhere at once. The French were beaten, — and 
Robert Clive had found out what he liked to do. There 
would be no clerk’s desk for him so long as there were 
battles to be fought. 






154 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

He soon had fighting enough to do. Two native rulers 
claimed the same throne. The French sided with Chunda 
Sahib, the English sided with Mahommed Ali. 

Chunda Sahib and the French attacked the town in 
which Mahommed Ali was sheltered. The English tried 
to help their ally, but they could not drive off the 
French. Clive thought of a plan to drawjdiem away 
from the town. 

He told the governor that if the English were to 
threaten Arcot, Chunda Sahib’s chief city, the nabob 
would have to send some of his men to defend it. The 
governor said Clive might try that plan. 

At the head of two hundred Englishmen and three 
hundred sepoys, Clive made his way toward Arcot. In 
spite of bad weather and worse roads, within a few days 
he appeared before the crumbling earthen walls of the 
city. The soldiers of the fort fled without waiting to fire 
a shot. Their places were taken by Captain Clive and 
his men. And now the real trouble began. 

Clive well knew that it would not be so easy to keep 
the town as it had been to take it. He did what he could 
to strengthen the fort and to lay in a stock of food. 

The soldiers that had run away at Clive’s approach, 
increased by others from the neighborhood, returned and 
settled down in front of the city. In the middle of the 
night, Clive and his little army stole out of the fort. As 
noiseless as shadows, they crept nearer and yet nearer to 
the sleeping sepoys in the enemy’s camp. 

The roar of a musket broke the silence. 


ROBERT CLIVE 



155 

The sepoys no longer slept. They ran. They fell — 
struck down by shot or sword. Few escaped. Clive 
marched back to the fort without losing a man. 

Chunda Sahib now did what Clive had expected him to 
do. He sent a large body of native soldiers and one 
hundred fifty Frenchmen to Arcot. They were under 


A Native Indian Army on the March 

the command of his son, Rajah Sahib. Other troops 
joined these till there was an army of 10,000 men to take 
a fort now held by one hundred twenty white men and 
two hundred sepoys. 

Fifty days the brave defenders held out under the 
scorching sun of India, without rest, without sleep, 
almost without food. Clive’s sepoys came to their 
leader and begged that all the grain be given to the Eng¬ 
lish soldiers as they needed more to eat than the natives. 











156 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


“The water in which the rice is cooked will be enough for 
us/’ they said. It would be hard to find in all history a 
more generous deed than this. 

For fifty days they had defeated every onset of the 
rajah’s forces. The water was almost gone. But the 
sun burned as hot as ever. Rajah Sahib sent to offer 
Captain Clive all the money and jewels he could want, 
if he would give up the fort. If he did not, the prince 
would storm the fort and put to death every man in it. 
To the messenger who brought the offer, Clive said: 

a Tell your master there is not enough wealth in all 
India to make me give up the fort. As for the rest, tell 
him he had better think twice before coming within reach 
of an Englishman’s arm.” 

Fifty days, and the break in the wall had grown wider. 
The foe made a last furious attack. Elephants whose 
foreheads were armed with spiked plates of iron were 
driven up to batter down the wooden gates. The noise 
of the muskets and the spatter of bullets on their tough 
hides frightened the animals. They turned round and, 
paying no heed to their drivers, in their wild flight tram¬ 
pled down the men of the attacking army. The enemy 
poured through the breach in the wall. Though weak 
and weary, the gallant little band inside fought fiercely. 
By evening — nobody could ever tell just how it hap¬ 
pened — Rajah Sahib’s men were rushing headlong back 
to their camp. 

That night there was no sleep for the tired little band 
within the fort. They must watch lest the enemy re- 


ROBERT CLIVE 


x 57 


turn. At daybreak they rubbed their eyes, thinking 
they must be asleep after all. Not a single man of the 
thousands that had surrounded them was to be seen! 

This wonderful victory led many native chiefs who 
had taken the part of Chunda Sahib to leave him and go 
over to Mahommed Ali and the English. Everywhere 
in India the power of the British increased, while that of 
the French decreased. 

Clive, who had landed in India with only a few pennies 
in his pocket, now went back to England a very rich man. 
The king, and everybody else, welcomed him as a hero, 
for his victories had made the English the most powerful 
people in the East. 

Although he shared his wealth with his family and his 
friends, he also spent money foolishly. Consequently, in 
a few years he was poor again and glad to return to India. 
This time he went as an officer in the English army, as 
well as a governor in the East India Company. 

It was a good thing for England that Colonel Clive did 
return to India. 

The northern part of India was ruled by a silly, selfish, 
bad-tempered young nabob called Surajah Dowlah. He 
hated the English. 

A rich native whom Surajah Dowlah wished to rob fled 
to Calcutta and asked the English to protect him. As 
they had granted his request, they would not give him 
up when the nabob asked for him. Surajah Dowlah 
marched up to Calcutta with a vast army. The English 
governor, having heard of the cruelty of the native 


158 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


prince whenever he won a victory, jumped into a boat 
and boarded the first ship he found in the harbor. The 
commander of the army did the same thing. Of course 
Surajah Dowlah took Calcutta. 

The nabob proved to be as cruel as the governor feared 
he would be. He ordered a hundred forty-six English 
subjects put into the Black Hole, a prison cell only big 
enough for one person in that hot climate. It was as 
bad as though he had ordered them put into an oven. 
They were kept there all night. In the morning there 
were only twenty-three alive. 

This terrible news was carried to Madras. The gov¬ 
ernor told Colonel Clive to take an army and teach the 
nabob to treat Englishmen better than that. 

When Clive arrived, Surajah Dowlah offered to make 
amends for his attack on Calcutta. While pretending to 
accept the offer, Clive promised to help one of Surajah 
Dowlah’s chiefs to become the nabob, if the chief would 
desert Surajah Dowlah. This trickery gave Clive many 
years of trouble when he was older. But the nabob was 
not telling the truth either. He hated the English more 
than ever, though he tried to make them believe he 
wanted to be their friend, and he was getting ready to 
attack them when they would not be expecting him. 

Clive moved his army to a grove of mango trees near 
the town of Plassey. Surajah Dowlah was only a mile 
away. At night the British were kept awake by the 
drums and cymbals of the enemy. Surajah Dowlah 
rested no better than they did. He was afraid to stay 


ROBERT CLIVE 


i59 





MAP OF 

INDIA 


English Miles 
o too 200 500 JQC* 

1_1_I,'i i 





























































































160 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

alone and equally afraid to have any one come near 
him. 

At sunrise the next morning, the army of the nabob 
began to move toward the grove of mango trees. There 
were twenty men in his army for each one in Clive’s 
army. His swift-riding horsemen alone were five times 
as many as the whole English army. He had bigger and 
better cannon — fifty-three of them, and I do not know 
how many elephants. But he lacked one thing that 
Clive and his men had a great deal of — courage. 

The battle commenced. Surajah Dowlah sat on a 
camel in the midst of his troops. Clive stood on the 
roof of a house near the grove. The British withdrew 
behind the shelter of a mud wall. The enemy brought 
the cannon closer to the grove and blazed away. They 
did great damage — to the trees. Clive’s soldiers took 
better aim. The ranks of the nabob were thrown into 
disorder and began to fall back. Colonel Clive ordered 
his troops forward. Surajah Dowlah became frightened, 
and turned his camel, which ran from the field as swiftly 
as only a camel can run. The army followed, leaving 
their guns and baggage behind them. 

The battle of Plassey was over, and Clive had won 
India for England — India, a land twenty-five times as 
big and with fifty times as many people as England! 


CAPTAIN COOK FINDS THE SMALLEST 
CONTINENT 

In the first half of the eighteenth century, James 
Cook was working as apprentice to a shop-keeper in an 
English fishing village. But the work did not suit him; 
he wanted to go to sea. James had heard the “yarns” of 
the sailors, and he longed to share 
their adventures. He knew all 
about the clumsy boats in which 
they braved the sea, about the 
foul water to drink, the salt junk 
to eat, the sufferings from scurvy, 
and the brutal treatment from 
commanders. Still, he wanted to 
go. The shop became like a prison 
to him. So he ran away when he 
was fourteen, and became ship’s- 
boy on a collier. 

What happened to him during 
the next thirteen years is not known. We may be sure, 
however, that during those years he learned thoroughly 
the duties of a sailor. Fighting North Sea gales and liv¬ 
ing on bad food gave him a training that enabled him 
later to endure hardships which made others ready to 
give up. 

161 







162 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


During the Seven Years’ War between England and 
France, Cook entered the service of his country as an 
“able seaman.” He was soon promoted to the command 
of the Mercury , and ordered to join the English fleet 
besieging Quebec. There, he was chosen to take sound¬ 
ings in the St. Lawrence River directly in front of the 
French forts. This dangerous work was done to find 



Quebec in the Eighteenth Century 


safe anchorage for the English ships, out of reach of the 
enemy’s batteries, in order that they might protect the 
army in an attack which General Wolfe was to make on 
land. 

On his return to England after the war, he found there 
a keen interest concerning the unknown islands and the 
great continents which were supposed to exist in the 
south Pacific Ocean. But long sea voyages were still 
attended with dangers now unthought of. Expedition 



CAPTAIN COOK 


163 

after expedition had been brought to an end by contrary 
winds, or by lack of pure water and fresh food, which 
resulted in attacks of scurvy. 

Nevertheless, a new Pacific expedition was planned, 
and Captain Cook was selected for its command. No 
better choice could have been made. Over six feet tall 
and strongly built, experienced, patient, and resolute, 
he could eat the coarsest food along with his men, and 
with them “ labor hard till sunset, struggle with frozen 
ropes, sleep on a stony beach.” 

He wisely insisted upon taking every possible pre¬ 
caution against scurvy. Quantities of orange and lemon 
juice, vegetable soups, and pickled cabbage were stored 
in the hold. The crew were made to eat wild celery and 
other wild plants whenever they could be found along 
shore, and were obliged to take frequent cold baths. 
This was the first time since the terrible disease began its 
attack on the white man during Da Gama’s voyage that 
any effort had been made to prevent it. 

His slow but strongly-built vessel crossed the Atlantic 
and rounded Cape Horn safely. Then the southern 
Pacific was explored, and many new islands were found. 
Over a year after they left England they sighted the 
eastern coast of New Zealand. The good health of the 
crew made it unnecessary for Captain Cook to hurry on 
as those before him had to do. He examined the coast 
for two months, but found no part of the “ great southern 
continent.” 

He did prove that New Zealand is made up of two 


i6 4 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


large islands. He found that the northern island is moun¬ 
tainous, with cliffs along the shore. The natives, whom 
he called “ Indians,” were, according to his report, strong 
and active. They were dark brown in color, with black 
hair, and were “rather above common size.” In some 
places they were hostile. Such were avoided, for evi¬ 
dence was found that they were cannibals as well. 
Others were friendly and willing to exchange food — 
mostly fish and sweet potatoes — for cloth, beads, and 
nails. But they would cheat or steal whenever they had 
a chance. Up near the northern end, the natives seemed 
more intelligent. Cook learned from them that off to 
the northwest was a “ country of great extent, where the 
people eat hogs.” 

The captain saw no four-footed animals, either tame 
or wild, except dogs and rats. But he saw a great va¬ 
riety of beautiful birds, some like those at home, some 
strange. In the forests there were over twenty different 
sorts of trees, all unknown to Europeans up to that time. 

Passing round the dangerous north coast they met 
with gales, but got by safely. Going down the west 
coast they met an old cannibal, who assured them that 
there was a passage through to the eastern sea. This 
they found to be true, and Cook’s Strait went on the 
map. 

A westward voyage of three weeks brought them with¬ 
in sight of the southeastern corner of Australia. Work¬ 
ing north along the coast, they made frequent landings. 
Flat-topped mountains were to be seen inland, and great 


CAPTAIN COOK 


165 

numbers of “stout and lofty” trees, as the captain de¬ 
scribes them. There was almost no undergrowth, and 
the land between the big trees, except where it was 
swampy, appeared well suited for cultivation. 



Such natives as were seen resembled the New Zea¬ 
landers. Most of them lived in small groups along the 
shore, and they were very shy. They ran away from 
every approach of the white men, and would not even 
touch presents left for them. 

After safely sailing along more than thirteen hundred 














GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


166 

miles of this dangerous coast, the ship struck on hidden 
coral reefs. It took them a day and a half to work her 
off, and she was leaking badly. They had to seek a 
harbor and set about repairs. Luckily, a big piece of the 
coral rock had broken off and stuck 
in the worst break, else the ship 
would have sunk. There was more 
bad luck. For in spite of the 
Captain’s precautions, some of the 
men began to develop scurvy. 

While they lay here, they had 
their first sight of a kangaroo, 
which the captain then thought 
looked like a greyhound. Later, 
they managed to kill one and were able to give a better 
description of it. Also, they found it good eating. 

They ran across some enormous ant-hills, six to eight 
feet high and twelve to fifteen feet around. They saw 
the nest of an eagle, and a huge one, so the captain re¬ 
ports, of some unknown bird. This nest was twenty-six 
feet around, and two feet eight inches high! That sounds 
like the Arabian Nights , doesn’t it? 

They soon passed a cape which they thought was the 
northernmost point. It was not, however, so they named 
it Cape Flattery. If you look at a map of Australia and 
find that cape, you can see how far they had gone up the 
coast. 

Beyond Cape Flattery shoals and reefs came thick and 
fast. They could neither keep close to shore nor get 



Kangaroo 


CAPTAIN COOK 


167 


west, so they were forced to sail out into deep water and 
run north. This was, as the Captain says, in one sense a 
great relief, for they had sailed a thousand miles “ without 
once having a man out of the chains heaving the lead, 
even for a minute, which perhaps never happened to any 
other vessel.” 

Off one of these reefs they were in great danger. 
Calms and a flood tide carried them perilously near, and 
the anchor could not be grounded. To keep off, they 
had to get out the small boats and tow the ship. At 
last they turned Cape York and found a clear passage to 
the west. Now Captain Cool^ could be sure that this 
land was a separate continent. So before leaving he 
took formal possession in the name of the king. And 
that is why Australia is a British colony. 

After thoroughly overhauling the ship at the island of 
Java, they set sail for home, arriving there at the end of a 
voyage of three years. 

Captain Cook had successfully navigated in unknown 
seas, and had made many important discoveries, but he 
had not mastered the problem of feeding his crew so as to 
prevent scurvy. So, when he was sent out again a year 
later to explore further in the Southern Hemisphere, he 
gave his whole attention to this one subject. The pro¬ 
visions were carefully selected and prepared, and great 
attention was given to the matter of cleanliness. 

You may judge how successful his efforts were from 
the fact that at the end of another three years’ voyage 
he had lost but four men, and only one of them from ill- 


168 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


ness. Such a triumph was as important as the discovery 
of continents. 

Many persons in England had refused to believe the 
captain’s report of having found cannibals in New Zea¬ 
land. So, while stopping to rest there on this second 
voyage, he made sure of the fact. But there was no 
danger to the white men, for the cannibals ate only 
enemies killed in battle. 

Off southward again they went, looking for an Ant¬ 
arctic land. They sailed entirely around the world near 
the Antarctic Circle, and drove as far south through the 
ice as they could, but they found no land. Meanwhile, 
on their runs northward, they had discovered many new 
islands in the southern Pacific Ocean, and so were able to 
give a good account of themselves on their return home. 

From the time it was known that Columbus had dis¬ 
covered a continent, men had been trying to find a 
northwest passage through it from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. Now it was Captain Cook’s turn. Only, he 
began on the Pacific side. On the voyage undertaken for 
this purpose, he found the Sandwich Islands. After an 
unsuccessful search for the long-looked-for passage, he 
returned to these islands. To punish the natives for 
stealing one of his boats, he arrested their king and at¬ 
tempted to take him aboard the ship. This angered the 
natives, and in the fight that resulted, one of them killed 
Captain Cook. Thus England lost one of her bravest and 
most skilful seafarers. 


WASHINGTON, THE FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY 


“ ’Tis splendid to live so grandly 
That long after you are gone, 

The things you did are remembered 
And recounted under the sun; 

To live so bravely and purely 
That a nation stops on its way, 

And once a year with banner and drum, 

Keeps its thought of your natal day.” 

On the 2 2d of each February, ever since you began to 
go to school, you have kept the “natal day” of,Wash¬ 
ington, the “ Father of his Country.” So of course you 
know that Washington’s country is our country. But 
you may not know exactly how it came to pass that we 
celebrate his birth by a national holiday. 

Three hundred years after Columbus discovered Am¬ 
erica, many English people were living along the Atlantic 
coast of this country. The French had forts and trading 
stations between the English settlements and the Missis¬ 
sippi River. Here, as in India, the French and the Eng¬ 
lish were rivals for the trade of the natives, and for land 
and power. 

The French built forts and the English sent settlers 
into whatever part of the country each desired to claim. 
Neither paid much attention to the rights of the Indians. 
Some Indian tribes were friendly with the English, 
others with the French. 

169 


170 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


By and by, the English said the French were building 
forts on land that belonged to them. The governor of 
Vir ginia sent a young man of that colony to the com¬ 
mander of one of the forts to tell the French they must 
move off that land. The young Virginian was George 
Washington. 



Birthplace of Washington 

The house is no longer standing; its site is marked by a monument 


Only a man as strong and healthy as Washington was, 
could undertake such a journey in those days. He had to 
travel several hundred miles through a wilderness where 
only an Indian guide knew the way. He must ride 
horseback or walk the whole distance. The only dwel¬ 
lings were the wigwams of the Indians. They were so 
far apart, even when they belonged to friendly tribes, 
that the travelers had to carry their own food, and 
when it gave out they went hungry. It rained or snowed 
nearly every day. On the way Washington met 


GEORGE WASHINGTON 


171 

Frenchmen, who tried to discourage him by telling him 
tales of savages on the war-path, and by trying to coax 
the guide and other friendly Indians away from him. 
But Washington never gave up when he undertook to do 
anything, and so he kept on till he came to the fort. 

The commander listened to his message, and after de¬ 
taining him several days, told him that the French would 
not give up the land. 



A Fort on the Ohio River 


The journey back was worse than the journey out. 
The cold was terrible. When he came to the Ohio, it was 
frozen along the shore, but in the middle great cakes of 
ice swirled in the rapid current. Washington and his 
friend Gist tried to cross on a raft. While trying to 
steer the raft through the blocks of ice, Washington was 
thrown off into the deep water. He managed to climb 
back on the raft and to guide it to an island. The night 
was so cold that by morning the river was frozen so 






172 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

were Mr. Gist’s fingers and toes. In one place, the In¬ 
dian who was pretending to guide them shot at Wash¬ 
ington, but missed his aim. 

In spite of these hardships and dangers, Washington 
carried the answer of the French commander to the gov¬ 


ernor. He also told the governor many useful things he 
had noticed at the fort and on the journey. 

The next year, Washington, then a major, tried to 
take a French fort at the place where Pittsburgh now 
stands. He could not do that. But he did surprise and 
capture a company of French and Indians that was 
looking for him. By doing so, Washington had won the 


Washington on his Way to the French Forts 


GEORGE WASHINGTON 


I 73 


first English victory in the Seven Years’ War between 
England and France. 

Soon after this, General Braddock came over from 
England with an army. He said he would put a stop to 
the French fort-building in no time. As for the In¬ 
dians, it would only be necessary 
for his regulars (meaning his 
drilled soldiers) to get a glimpse 
of them in order to end their 
scalping of the king’s subjects. 

This he told the Virginians. 

But General Braddock would 
not listen when the Virginians 
told him that he would have to 
cross the wilderness to reach the 
French, and that the Indians 
would be much more likely to 
get a glimpse of the regulars first. 

In that case, the British soldiers 

might never see the Indian war- At the age of 30, in the uniform 
. „ 1 -g~ 1. 1 , r of a Virginian Colonel 

nors. For the Indians shot from 

behind trees or bushes or fallen logs and did not come 
out to scalp their enemies till they had killed or wounded 
them. 

General Braddock marched into the forest with drums 
beating and colors flying. Washington was with him. 
He, too, tried to make the General understand that he 
could never beat the Indians that way. Braddock 
thought he must be either foolish or cowardly. 



George Washington 


i 7 4 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

Eight miles from the fort a shower of bullets suddenly 
dropped down upon them. With no one in sight, the 
English soldiers did not know where to aim, while their 
red coats made fine targets for the hidden foe. At last 
they ran back along the way over which they had 
marched forward so confidently. British regulars running 
away! General Braddock was fu¬ 
rious, and did his utmost to stop 
them. He was wounded. His 
soldiers continued to run till they 
reached an English settlement. 

Though two horses were shot 
under him, and there were four 
bullet holes in his coat, Washing¬ 
ton thought of no danger to him¬ 
self, but carried the general’s 
orders wherever he sent them. 
After Braddock’s defeat Wash- 

General Edward Braddock 

ington became commander-m- 
chief of the Virginia forces. He was expected to defend 
the colony, but the governor either could not or would 
not give him the men and money with which to do 
it. For three years Washington worked at this hard 
task, showing that he was as patient and persevering as 
he had already shown himself to be strong and brave. 
He succeeded in forming and drilling a regiment which 
took part in a second attempt to capture the French fort. 
When they arrived, they found that the French had 
burned the fort and gone away. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 


*75 



Braddock surprised by an Ambuscade 



176 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


Washington took no further part in the Seven Years’ 
War. When the war was ended, the English had won 
from the French all of what is now the United States as 
far west as the Mississippi River, except the city of New 
Orleans. 

Washington gave up his position in the army, married 
a little hazel-eyed lady, and went to live on his planta- 



Mount Vernon 


tion at Mount Vernon. He rose early and went to bed 
early, often at nine o’clock. He did not “guess” how 
this or that would turn out, but kept a strict account of 
everything and looked after it himself. His chief crops 
were tobacco and wheat. He was so honest about the 
weight and quality of everything he sold, that after a 
while articles bearing the brand of George Washington 
were not examined abroad as the goods of other traders 


were. 




o 

































































% 













- 










































GEORGE WASHINGTON 


179 


In this way Washington lived and worked for fifteen 
years. Then, one August day in 1774, two visitors came 
to Mount Vernon. When they rode away at the end of 
the week, Washington rode with them. All three went 
to Philadelphia ( Fil-a-del'ji-a) to attend the Continental 
Congress. The Continental Congress was a meeting of 
men sent from all the English colonies in America. They 
met to ask one another what right the King of England 
had to make the people of the colonies pay a tax on their 
tea, or on anything else, without letting them have a 
word to say about it. 

The men in the Congress decided that when the col¬ 
onies were to be taxed it was their right to have some one 
representing them say how much the tax was to be. But 
they knew the King would not agree with them. They 
knew, too, that they might have to show him they were 
in earnest by fighting for their rights. 

The next year Washington attended another Congress 
in Philadelphia. In the meantime, the British regulars 
had been defeated at Lexington and Concord by the New 
England farmers. This was the beginning of the ex¬ 
pected war — the War of the Revolution, as we now 
speak of it. 

Everyone in the Congress saw the need of having a 
wise and brave commander for the American army. 
Washington was already known as a brave soldier for 
what he had done in the Seven Years’ War. He was 
also known for the wise decisions he gave whenever his 
advice was asked on important matters, as well as for his 


180 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


great honesty and his interest in the good of the country. 
Congress made him commander-in-chief of the American, 
army. That was a great honor. 

It was also a great task. There was no American 
army. There were various bodies of soldiers in the 
colonies. Farmers and merchants, clerks and lawyers, 
teachers and preachers, offered their services. All were 
brave men and true, eager to help, but they knew nothing 
about war. If the colonies were to win their rights 
through war, he must make out of these men an army 
that should defeat men whose only business in life was 
fighting. This was hard work. But it was not so hard 
as to get food, shelter, uniforms, guns and powder for 
these untrained sons of freedom. 

Washington wasted no time worrying about the dif¬ 
ficulties to be overcome. He worked with might and 
main to make good soldiers out of such men as he had. 

Meanwhile, the people of the colonies made up their 
minds that they might just as well fight to be altogether 
independent of the King of England. A committee pre¬ 
pared a Declaration of Independence. The Declaration 
was adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776. That is why 
we celebrate the Fourth of July. Washington had the 
Declaration read to his soldiers. Then they had a 
stronger reason than ever for striving to beat the Eng¬ 
lish army. 

How Washington crossed the Delaware one Christmas 
night; how he spent one cold winter in Valley Forge 
without blankets to keep his men warm, or shoes to keep 


Signing the Declaration of Independence 
After an engraving of the painting by Trumbull 


GEORGE WASHINGTON 


181 























































































































































































































































































i 82 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


their feet from the frozen ground; how the very French 
he had fought against in the Seven Years’ War sent him 
help; and how he finally defeated the British at York- 
town; — all this you will read later in your American 



Washington taking the Oath as President, April 30, 1789 
In front of the building now called the United States Sub treasury in Wall 
Street, New York 

histoiy. But it is because Washington never gave up 
when he had a work to do — no matter how hard or how 
dangerous it might be, nor how tired it made him — it is 
because he never gave up, that you and I have an Am¬ 
erican history to read. 






























































GEORGE WASHINGTON 


183 

From that history you will also learn that, when the 
war was over, Washington went back to work on his farm 
at Mount Vernon. There, too, you will find out more 
than I can tell you now about the trouble the colonies had 
in learning to govern themselves after they were free to 
do so. You will read, besides, that they finally sent to 
Mount Vernon for the just and wise man who had won this 
great land for them, to come and be their first President. 

While he was President he was just as careful, sincere, 
truthful, honest, and unselfish as he had been when a 
boy at school, a soldier in the army, or a planter at home. 
And, once in a great while, just as hot-tempered, too. 

After he had been President of our glorious new coun¬ 
try for eight years, he went back to Mount Vernon and 
stayed there the rest of his life. 

I hope you will go to Mount Vernon some day. As 
you stand on the veranda of the long, low, white house, 
or on the wide lawn in front of it, looking out over the 
river as Washington often did, and think over the things 
you have learned about him, you will know exactly why 
it is that the country celebrates his birthday each year. 
Perhaps you will say to yourself: 

“Yes, it’s splendid to live so bravely, 

To be so great and strong 
That your memory is ever a tocsin 
To rally foes of the wrong; 

To live so proudly and purely 

That your people pause in their way, 

And year by year with banner and drum, 

Keep the thought of your natal day.” 


NAPOLEON, THE LITTLE MAN WHO WANTED 
TO RULE THIS BIG WORLD 

One day toward the end of the eighteenth century, in 
a military school in France, the pupils were told the 
story of Washington, and of the French army that was 
sent to help him. 

One of the pupils was a sallow-faced lad, smaller than 
most boys of his age. His head, which seemed too large 
for his little body, was covered with long, stiff hair that 
was very hard to keep parted. His keen blue eyes had a 
strange power of holding the attention of anyone at 
whom he directed his piercing glance. This odd-looking, 
odd-mannered child was Napoleon Bonaparte. 

His parents were Italians. They became French sub¬ 
jects when the island on which they lived was given up 
to France. They were very poor and could not give their 
son as much money to spend as the other pupils had. 
On one occasion this made him so unhappy that he made 
up his mind to run away to sea. But he remembered how 
much trouble this would give his mother, and stayed 
where he was. 

“Straw-nose,” as the other boys nicknamed him in 
French, from his Italian way of pronouncing Napoleon, 
did not get on well with his schoolmates. They teased 
him. He did not take the teasing good-naturedly. 

184 




NAPOLEON 


185 

Sometimes he called them bad names, at other times he 
used his fists, but generally he went off by himself and 
studied or read or thought of the great deeds he would 
do when he became a man. 

Napoleon liked to study arithmetic, but he found it 
very hard to learn languages, even the French language. 

He would spend hours 
reading about Caesar and 
Alexander the Great. 

Then he would think how 
he would have planned 
their battles if he had been 
in their places. Once, he 
set up rows of pebbles for 
the Persians and other 
rows for the Greeks. 

Larger pebbles stood for 
officers, and the largest of 
all was the general, prob¬ 
ably Napoleon himself in 
Alexander’s place. And, 
probably, whichever side 
he commanded would have won the battle if his game had 
not been interrupted by one of his teasing schoolmates. 

Later, he formed the boys of the school into two armies. 
They built a snow fort. Their weapons were snow-balls. 
Napoleon, as commander, carried a cane for a sword. 
One army, the smaller, had the fort. The soldiers of the 
larger army, led by Napoleon, were to take the fort away 



Napoleon’s Birthplace 


186 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


from the others. When they succeeded, it was their 
turn to hold the fort. The former defenders, with some 
of the poorer fighters from the larger army, then became 
the attacking party. The attack, though, no matter 
who held the fort, was almost always led by Napoleon. 

By the time he was sixteen, he had passed his exami¬ 
nations for the army and was a lieutenant. 

His short legs were very thin and his army boots were 
much too big for them. But he was proud of his new 
uniform and went to call on a lady who had always been 
kind to him. Her daughters, somewhere near Napoleon’s 
own age, laughed aloud at the sight of him. Napoleon 
never could get used to being laughed at. He became 
very angry and said rude things to them, calling Laura 
“nothing but a school-girl!” Then she, too, lost her 
temper. “And you are nothing but a ‘Puss-in-Boots!’” 
she cried. Even his kind friend had to laugh at 
that. 

But Napoleon soon had more serious things to think of 
than the teasing of either boys or girls. I want to tell 
you now a few of the great deeds that give him a place 
among the great men of history. 

Very shortly after they helped us out of our trouble 
with England, the French found themselves in great 
trouble of their own. For many years the French kings 
and their nobles had been making the people of France 
poorer and poorer, and themselves richer and richer. 
The rich spent their wealth in foolish ways, while the 
poor had not even enough to eat. If they complained, 


NAPOLEON 187 


they were thrown into dark, damp, mouldy dungeons and, 
perhaps, forgotten and left there to starve to death. 

In the same year that Washington first became Presi¬ 
dent of our country, the French people rebelled against 
their king. Three years afterward they tried to make 
their country a republic like ours. The only way they 
could think of to get rid of 
the king was to cut off his 
head. And they did. This 
alarmed the kings of the other 
countries in Europe. It would 
never do, they thought, to 
let their subjects suppose any 
country outside of the United 
States could get along without 
a king. Accordingly, they 
made war on France. 

For some years it certainly 
looked as though the people 
of France could not govern 

themselves. They had no wise Washington to help them, 
even if they had wanted to learn. To many persons 
it seemed as though they did not. They did wicked 
and horrible deeds, deeds they were heartily sorry for 



Napoleon in 1795 
After the drawing by Guerin 


afterwards. 

The Directors, as the three rulers that took the place 
of the king were called, gave Napoleon command of the 
army that was to fight Austria. There was something 
about Napoleon that made soldiers trust him and eager to 


188 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

follow where he led. The troops now given to him with 
which to beat a force of twice their numbers were no 
exception. He found them half-starved, half-naked, and 
wholly disheartened. Within two months they fought 
and won eighteen battles. They destroyed three Austrian 
armies and took thousands of prisoners. They made 
Austria beg for peace, and other hostile powers pay large 
sums of money. 

The next thing Napoleon did was not so much to his 
credit. He took costly statues, paintings, and books 
away from Rome and sent them to the royal palace in 
Paris. 

Napoleon went to Paris himself, and was chosen to be 
one of the three men who governed France. While 
holding this office, he built schools, colleges, and churches. 
He made roads, canals, and harbors. Greatest of all, 
he made a new set of laws under which everybody could 
be justly treated. 

But England and Germany were still at war with 
France, and Austria had again joined them. The Aus¬ 
trians were encamped in northern Italy, with four times 
as many soldiers as there were in the French army. 
The great question was how to reach them. Napoleon 
knew the answer to that. He would cross the Alps! 

Tree trunks were hollowed out and the cannon placed 
inside. Then, as not enough mules were to be had for 
the purpose, the soldiers dragged the logs up one side of 
the high snow-covered mountains and down the other 
side. Before the Austrians could think twice, the French 


NAPOLEON 


army stood on the plains of Lombardy. Napoleon won a 
great victory at Marengo (Ma-ren'go), and the Austrians 
again made peace. 



Napoleon at the Head of his Army crossing the Alps to Italy 


Napoleon had no navy to equal England’s and that 
country remained unconquered. 

By this time Napoleon had become so powerful and 
was so beloved by the French, that they wanted him to be 
their only ruler. Accordingly, one clear, cold Sunday in 
December the streets of Paris were thronged with people. 



GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


190 


They were watching for the man who had saved France 
from her enemies. 

A gilded coach, drawn by eight big bay horses with 
white plumes nodding on their heads, approached the 
cathedral. Through the glass sides of the coach the 
watchers saw their hero, dressed in a velvet suit trimmed 
with gold lace. 



Iron Crown op Lombardy 


Those who were fortunate 
enough to be in the cathedral 
saw Napoleon walk up the broad 
aisle to the throne at the other 
end of it. A wreath of golden 
laurel leaves was on his head. 
A magnificent purple robe em¬ 
broidered with small golden bees 

A small golden diadem about hung from his shoulders to the 
two inches high. It is studded floor 

withjewels. A strip of iron ^ ^ ^ ^ from 

Rome to crown this great man 
Emperor of France. But, whether it was because Na¬ 
poleon was so in the habit of doing things for himself 
that he could not stop, or whether for once in his life he 
was really excited and did not know exactly what he was 
doing, I cannot say. I can only tell you that he himself 
lifted the beautiful crown from its cushion and placed 
it on his own head. 

Then how the old cathedral resounded to the shouts of 
“Long live the Emperor!” “Long live the Emperor!” 
Outside, the crowd took up the cry, and “Long live the 











NAPOLEON 



191 

Emperor!” rivaled the boom of the cannon which told all 
who cared to hear, that France had forgotten about being 
a republic and once more had a king. 

I might just as well tell you now that in the following 
May he was crowned again, or, rather, crowned himself 


The Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine 


again. This time it was in the cathedral of Milan. 
And what crown do you suppose it was? Why, the iron 
crown of Lombardy, the very one that Charlemagne had 
worn. 

Just a year to a day after he was crowned Emperor, he 
won a famous victory near a place called Austerlitz 









192 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 



Column Vendome, Paris 
Encircled with a spiral band of 
scenes in memory of Napoleon’s 
victories. It is 142 feet high and 
13 feet in diameter. 


(. Aus'ter-litz ), not far from Vien¬ 
na. Should you like to hear 
what Napoleon himself said 
about it? 

“The victory of Austerlitz is 
the most illustrious of all which 
I have gained. We have taken 
forty-five flags, 150 pieces of can¬ 
non, and twenty generals. More 
than 20,000 are slain. It is an 
awful spectacle. I have beaten 
the Russian and Austrian armies 
commanded by two emperors.” 

If you ever go to Paris, you 
may see a great bronze column 
made from the cannon captured 
in this battle. 

After the battle there was 
peace for a while with all except 
England. It was after this battle 
also that Napoleon began to plan 
to conquer the whole world and 
to make himself ruler of it. 

Austria could not forget the 
beating at Austerlitz, so once 
more Napoleon marched to Vien¬ 
na, Outside that city was fought 
the battle of Wagram ( Vog'ram ), 
and once more the Austrians 
were utterly overthrown. 




NAPOLEON 


193 


The battle of Wagram, like all of Napoleon’s battles, 
was different from the battles fought by the other con¬ 
querors I have told you about. It was won almost en¬ 
tirely by the skilful use of cannon. Napoleon knew 
better than any other general how to manage these big 
guns. 

After the victory of Wagram, Napoleon was, in one 
way or another, master of Europe. Only England was 
unconquered. The Emperor had beaten the mightiest 
armies that could be sent against him. He had com¬ 
pelled the countries he did not govern to make peace. 
He had made France the most powerful nation in Europe. 
He had made three of his brothers kings; two of his 
sisters, princesses; and the third sister, a queen. The 
Emperor of France had reached the topmost peak of 
success. He did not stay there, but came down on the 
other side of it toward failure. 

The coming down began when he became bad friends 
with the Russian emperor because that ruler did not help 
him against England as much, as Napoleon thought he 
ought to help. Napoleon raised an army of 600,000 men 
and began to march into Russia. He intended to take 
Moscow, thinking that the Czar would then have to do 
as he wished about England in order to get the capital 
back again. 

Moscow looked to the French army like a city in a 
fairy story. There towered the stronghold above the 
domes and spires and turrets of the city. There was the 
beautiful cathedral where the Czars were crowned, and 


i 9 4 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

the palaces in which they lived. But no sound from the 
city reached the ears of the soldiers. They drew nearer; 
all was as silent as before. They entered; not a soul 
met them. They had taken an empty city, except for a 
few thieves and beggars hidden away in cellars and other 
out-of-the-way places. 

But at least here was shelter and food for the hungry, 
foot-sore men, and rest and sleep, and merriment and 
booty. Yes; but not for long. At midnight rang out the 
cry that breaks the soundest sleep — “Fire!” 

The flames burst out here, there, everywhere. The 
fire engines had been purposely broken when the Russians 
left the city. The flames glowed, and roared, and licked 
up great buildings as though they were shavings. 

“It was a spectacle of a sea and billows of fire, a sky 
and clouds of flames; mountains of red, rolling flames, 
like immense waves of the sea, bursting forth and elevat¬ 
ing themselves to the skies of fire, and then sinking into 
the ocean of flames below.” That is how it appeared to 
Napoleon. 

The city was utterly ruined. There was but one thing 
for the French to do. They must retreat. 

I suppose nobody will ever be able to tell what an 
awful retreat that was. The winter set in — a Russian 
winter. The snow, falling in great flakes, darkened the 
day and blotted out the sky line. The wind howled and 
cracked off great trees already bent with the weight of 
ice and snow clinging to them. The cold numbed the 
limbs of the soldiers. They could scarely move. Those 


NAPOLEON 


i95 


who lagged behind were snapped up by wolves or by 
bands of prowling Russians. Those who pressed forward 
lost their way and were buried in the snow. When the 
storm ended, the cold increased. 

Day and night this conflict with cold and hunger, 
wild beasts and angry foes, kept up. Each day there 



The Kremlin, Moscow 

From the walls of the Kremlim Napoleon watched the burning of Moscow 


were fewer to face the trials of the next. Of the 600,000 
that started for Moscow 500,000 never reached France 
again. This was a sad defeat for Napoleon, and it carried 
him a long way down on the other side of success. Nearly 
every country in Europe now took up arms against him. 
Paris was captured, and Napoleon was exiled to the island 
of Elba. 

Within a year he escaped and returned to France. 
The French received the news of his return with joy and 







1 9 6 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


hope. The other European countries received this same 
news with fear and anger. 

Such was his strange power over the soldiers, and such 
was their love for him, that the very troops sent to arrest 
him threw down their guns and joined those already with 
him. 

A large English and a large German army were in Bel¬ 
gium. The English, under the Duke of Wellington, were 
near Waterloo. Napoleon hurried there, hoping to de¬ 
feat them before the Germans could come up to give 
them any help. One morning he arrived within a mile 
of Wellington’s army. It had rained heavily the night 
before. The ground all around the field of battle was 
soggy, and every hollow was a puddle of water. The 
cannon sank so deep into the mud that they could scarely 
be moved. Consequently, Napoleon did not attack Well¬ 
ington at once. 

The battle began at noon. It was one of the fiercest 
ever fought. The bravery of the French was equalled by 
the bravery of the English. Wellington was anxiously 
looking for the German army. Napoleon was anxiously 
expecting a part of his army that had been sent to keep 
the Germans back. Which would come first? Victory 
depended upon the answer to that question. Toward 
the late afternoon the French seemed to be winning. 
Then two long columns of troops began to spread over 
the fields to the right of the French army. The Germans 
had come! 

Napoleon ordered the Old Guard (his favorite soldiers) 



NAPOLEON 


197 


to attack Wellington’s strongest point. They did all 
that human beings could do, but they could not stand 
the cannon fire that hailed down shot and shell on three 
sides of them. They were driven back. The Old Guard 
driven back! This was too much for the courage of the 
French. They fled in utter confusion. 

Not all the Old Guard retreated. A few of them 
stood like the Spartans at Thermopylae. For every one 
of the Guard there were thirty of the enemy. With 
shouts of “Long five the Emperor!” they returned mus¬ 
ket shot for cannon balls. Every moment their number 
dwindled. The English soldiers, in admiration for such 
great courage, cried, “Brave Frenchmen, surrender!” 
The answer came back promptly, “Never!” Not one of 
them was captured alive. 

With the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon lost his power 
at home and abroad. This time he was exiled to the 
rocky little island of St. Helena. 

Napoleon never saw his beloved France again. 


LINCOLN, THE BACKWOODS BOY WHO SAVED 
HIS COUNTRY 

In the same year that Napoleon won the battle of Wag- 
ram, 1809, on the 12th of February there was born a boy 
who was to become a greater man than Napoleon was. 

The boy was born in a log cabin in the backwoods of 
Kentucky, and he was named Abraham Lincoln. 
Though he became so great that we celebrate his birth¬ 
day as we do Washing¬ 
ton’s, when he was a boy 
he did not have half so 
good a chance to become 
a great man as boys have 
now. For there was no 
school near enough to 
send him to when he 
was old enough to go. 

He did not go at all till he was ten years old, and after 
that all the time he spent in school put together did not 
amount to a year. When he did go, he sometimes had 
to walk nine miles a day to get there and back. Short as 
the time was, he learned to read, so that he was able to 
find out things from books. And he learned to write, so 
that when he read anything he liked very much he could 
copy it to keep. The only books he had were borrowed. 

198 



Log Cabin in which Abraham 
Lincoln was born 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


199 


The pen he used was made from the quill of a turkey 
feather, and the ink from the juice of a weed. 

If the Laura that laughed at Napoleon in his big boots 
and new uniform could have seen Lincoln when he was 
sixteen, she would have been too much surprised even to 
laugh. Lincoln at that age was over six feet tall and very 



Log-Cabin Furniture 


thin. His buckskin trousers, shrunk by frequent rains, 
were so short that twelve inches of bare legs showed 
above his shoe tops — when he wore shoes. That is why 
he was nicknamed “Longshanks. 5 ’ His cap was made 
from the skin of a raccoon, with the tail hanging down his 
back. 

He liked any kind of fun and frolic that hurt no one. 
But best of all he liked to hear and to tell stories. He 
enjoyed funny stories especially, and all his life long he 
was noted for the comical ones he could tell. Whenever 










200 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


he began a story, everybody within hearing dropped 
whatever he might be doing and came to listen. Lincoln 
often kept his companions laughing at his “yams,” as 
they called them, long after bedtime. 

He had very little time for fun, except at night, since 
he had to work all ‘day. By working from sunrise to 
sunset he earned twenty-five cents. He did not have 
even that, as it was paid to his father. Not until he was 
twenty-one did he have any of the money he earned. 



A Mississippi River Flat-Boat 


Once he received eight dollars a month for taking a flat- 
boat, carrying a cargo of corn and bacon, down the Mis¬ 
sissippi to New Orleans. 

While in New Orleans, he saw men and women huddled 
together in the market place, being bought and sold as 
though they were domestic animals. These unfortunate 
people were black, and they had no rights in this “land 
of the free.” The sight of them distressed Lincoln, and 
he made up his mind that he would help to free the slaves 
if he ever had a chance to do so. 










ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


201 


When he was twenty-one he left his father’s house. 

With his axe over his shoulder, and all the extra clothing 

he owned tied up in a small bundle, he started out to 

work for himself. At first he split rails, or did “odd 

jobs” around the house and on 

the farm for the neighbors. He 

must have been as strong as 

Charlemagne. Once, when three 

men were considering how best 

to take hold of a log in order to 

lift and carry it, Lincoln picked 

the log up, threw it across his 

shoulder and walked off with A Fence t oe the Kind foe 

which Lincoln split Rails 

it. 

When he became a clerk in a store, his employer 
bragged that Lincoln could beat anybody in town at any¬ 
thing. His hearers agreed that Lincoln was a very able 
young man, but they said that he could never throw 
Jack Armstrong in a wrestling match. To prove that 
they were wrong, the owner of the store arranged a 
match without saying anything about it to Lincoln. 
Lincoln did not want to take part in such rough sport, 
but neither did he wish to disappoint his friend. Finally, 
he consented to make the test. 

Jack and Abe seemed evenly matched. So, when 
Lincoln said, “I can’t throw you and you can’t throw 
me; let’s quit,” Jack was ready to stop. But his “gang” 
called him a coward, and said he must fight till one or 
the other had been beaten. At that Jack Armstrong 



202 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


tried to win by kicking and tripping, which are contrary 
to the rules of wrestling. Lincoln would not stand any 
unfair tricks. He reached out his strong right arm, took 
Jack by the neck, lifted him from the ground, and shook 
him as easily as he might have shaken a puppy. There¬ 
after, there was no question as to who was the strongest 
man in that town. 

Jack and Abe became firm friends, and years after¬ 
ward Lincoln saved Jack’s son from prison. 

Lincoln was just as honest as he was strong. He made 
a mistake in the change he gave a woman in the store one 
day. The next morning before he went to work he took 
the right change to her. Because of his great honesty 
in word and deed his friends called him “ Honest Abe.” 

He was as kind as he was honest. He never could 
bear to see any living creature hurt. He put himself to a 
good deal of trouble once, to get back into the nest two 
young birds that had fallen to the ground. On another 
occasion, he spoiled a new suit of clothes helping a pig 
out of the mire into which it had wandered, and which 
threatened to smother the poor thing. He would even 
rock the baby’s cradle for some tired mother so that she 
might get a little rest. 

While he worked hard, and played, too, when he could, 
he found time to read and study. Although he was now 
a young man, he still had to borrow the books he needed, 
for he was very poor in spite of his hard work. He would 
walk six miles in the evening to borrow a book and carry 
it back before going to work early the next morning. 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


203 


1 


Such good use did he make of his study time that he 
learned enough to be a lawyer. When he was twenty- 
five years old, the people of his home town chose him to 
go to the capital of the state to help make the laws. But 
he was still so poor he was obliged to borrow the money 
with which to buy suitable clothes to wear there. 

A few years later he went to Springfield, Illinois, to be 
the partner of the lawyer from whom he had borrowed 
books. He was still so poor that he could not pay seven¬ 
teen dollars for a bed to put into the room he had rented. 
The merchant in whose store he had tried to buy the bed 
offered to share his room with Lincoln. He gladly 
accepted the offer. You will see that “Honest Abe” 
was his rightful nickname when I tell you that all the 
time he had seventeen dollars laid away in an old sock. 
It was the exact amount left after the postoffice in his 
home town was closed several years before, while he was 
postmaster there. The agent had not come for the 
money in all those years, but Lincoln had never touched a 
penny of it. 

Time went on, and “Honest Abe” was chosen to go to 
Washington to represent his state in Congress. There 
he became acquainted with many wise men. There, too, 
he found in the great library of Congress all the books 
he wished to read. 

When his term of office ended, Lincoln wanted to go to 
Congress again. By that time, people all over the land, 
but especially in the North, were asking if it could be 
right that there should be slaves in this home of a free 




204 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


people. Some said it was right; others said it was 
wrong. Lincoln was on the side of those who said it was 
wrong. In a famous speech he made while he was trying 
to be elected to Congress, he said: “I do not believe this 
government can endure half slave and half free.” He 
said more things which showed that if he were in Con¬ 
gress he would help make laws that should some day set 
the slaves free. He tried to make it plain, however, that 
slaves ought not to be taken from their masters except 
according to law. But he was not elected. 

However, there were many people in the country who 
thought as Lincoln did. By and by there were enough of 
them to elect him President of the United States. 

Is it not wonderful? He who had been but a poor 
backwoods boy had become the greatest man in the coun¬ 
try. His hard work, honesty, and kindness had made 
the people want him to be the ruler of the nation. They 
wanted him, too, because they thought he was wise 
enough to know the best way of making the black men as 
free as they were themselves. 

Of course, Lincoln was very proud and happy to be 
chosen President. But he was sad, too. For he knew 
there were almost as many people in the country (more, 
in the South) who did not want him, as there were people 
who did. They were slave owners and people who 
thought it right to own slaves. And he knew that before 
slavery could be done away with there would be great 
trouble. 

President Lincoln hated slavery. But he did not think 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


2°S 



Abraham Lincoln 
From a photograph taken in i860 

















ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


207 


the slaves should be taken from their masters all at once, 
as some persons did. He believed that if the law freed 
the slaves, the government ought to pay their owners 
what the slaves had cost them. 

But many of his enemies were so angry that a Presi¬ 
dent who did not approve of slavery 
had been elected, that they would 
not listen to what he thought 
about the way it should be stopped. 

Some of them hated him so much 
that they said he should never live 
to be President. But he did. 

In the meantime, the men of the 
South planned to have a govern¬ 
ment of their own, under which 
they could lawfully keep slaves, 
and decide other matters to suit 
themselves. 

The President loved the United 
States more than he hated slavery. 

He would do anything that was 
right to keep the whole country 
one nation. He would permit no part of the country to 
do anything that would be an injury to the nation as a 
whole. So he tried to show the people of the South that 
they were wrong, and warned them that they must do 
nothing against the United States government. 

The Southern army attacked and captured a fort 
belonging to the United States. That was an offense 





208 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

against the nation that could be punished only by 
war. 

The war had lasted for two years when, on New Year’s 
Day, President Lincoln said: 

“All persons held as slaves within any state or part 
of a state in rebellion against the United States, shall be 
henceforward and forever free.” 

And that is how the slaves were 
freed. 

But the war did not end. Nor did 
President Lincoln’s task become any 
easier. Not even his friends under¬ 
stood what he was trying to do. They 
found as much fault with him as his 
enemies did. Some of them forsook 
him when he most needed them. 

But neither friends nor foes could 
move Lincoln to do anything but what 
he thought the best thing to keep the 
nation united, nor to be an enemy to 
any person because that person had 
injured him. 

When Lincoln was first elected, he feared that he did 
not know enough to be President. When it was time for 
another election, he wanted to be President again. He 
knew, then, that no one could finish the war and restore 
peace to the country so well as he could. The people, 
also, knew that. He was elected President of the United 
States for the second time. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 


209 


A few months after his re-election, the South was 
beaten and the war came to an end. Our great, wise, pa¬ 
tient President had proved 
to all the world that this 
broad land of ours was 
“henceforward and for¬ 
ever ” to be “one nation, 
indivisible, with liberty and 
justice for all. ,, 

Lincoln enjoyed the hap¬ 
piness of peace but a short 
time. While the whole coun¬ 
try was rejoicing that the 
war was over, Lincoln went 
to the theater one evening. 

As he sat watching the 
play, an insane man came 
behind him and shot him 
through the head. 

President Lincoln died a 
few hours afterward. 

The whole country went into mourning. Even the 
South, which had fought against his ideas, was sorry to 
hear of the death of this just and generous man. 



The Lincoln Statue in 
Chicago 







STANLEY SAILS DOWN A GREAT RIVER IN 
THE DARK CONTINENT 

From early times the interior of Africa has been a 
source of interest to all exploring nations. Greeks, 
Romans, and Arabs, one after the other, tried to reach 
the head-waters of the Nile, but failed. The early 
Portuguese discoverers brought back much new informa¬ 
tion, and claimed to have found a lake from which the 
Nile flowed. 

It remained, however, for the English to make really 
serious attempts to discover the secrets of the Dark Con¬ 
tinent. They found all the large lakes of Central Africa, 
but these were not explored thoroughly. One of the most 
noted of the English leaders, David Livingstone, was 
gone so long on one trip that it was feared he had been 
lost. Who do you suppose was sent to find him? An 
American newspaper reporter! James Gordon Bennett, 
owner of the New York Herald , sent a telegram to Henry 
M. Stanley which said, “Find Livingstone. , ’ That was 
easy to say; it was not easy to do. But Stanley worked 
his way to the heart of Africa, and successfully carried 
out his orders. 

This search for Livingstone resulted in making Stanley 
one of the great travelers of the world. He learned 
much from Livingstone that served him in good stead 


210 


HENRY M. STANLEY 


211 



when he began to look for the river that runs through 
the middle of the Dark Continent. One of the most 
useful lessons was that of 
being patient with the 
untaught natives. 

I cannot begin to tell 
you of all his travels. Per¬ 
haps you will read about 
them in the books he 
wrote. But we can try to 
follow him on the most 
important and dangerous 
of his many journeys. 

Look at the map of 
Africa on page 213, and 
find the island of Zanzi¬ 
bar on the east coast. Stanley set out from there in 
September, 1874. The colored natives of this island, 
serving as porters, or carriers, were a great aid to all 
such expeditions. They flocked to Stanley, who had a 
great name as having found “the old white man,” their 
name for Livingstone, and as being good to his men. 

Travel of the kind undertaken by Stanley does not 
mean taking a train. Neither does it mean getting on a 
ship and sailing the seas, as most of the old-time explorers 
did. Such voyages had their troubles and dangers, but 
still there were chances to rest comfortably, and cool sea- 
breezes. This traveling means marching overland in a 
tropical climate. All equipment and much food has to 


Henry M. Stanley 





212 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


be carried. Often, in the sun, the thermometer stands 
at 140 degrees, which is not at all comfortable, even for 
the natives. 

Stanley had an exploring boat specially made, which 
could be taken apart and carried in sections when not in 
use. This, added to all the other things, brought the 
weight of the whole outfit up to nine tons. Stanley di¬ 
vided the total weight among the three hundred porters, 
giving to each about sixty pounds to carry. That 
amount was much less than porters usually carried, but 
he made their burdens light in order that they might 
travel more quickly. When the expedition started in¬ 
land, it formed a line nearly a mile long. 

The going was difficult, and in less than a month 
fifty of the men had deserted. The rainy season, setting 
in about Christmas, made travel worse. Also, food of 
some kinds was now scarce. The native stores of grain 
are mostly used up between May and November, De¬ 
cember being the planting month. Many of the porters 
had sore feet, or were ill with fever. Stanley himself, 
who weighed one hundred eighty pounds at the start, 
had lost over forty pounds in six weeks. Added to this, 
was the trouble with hostile tribes that demanded tribute 
before they would allow the travelers to pass through 
their lands in peace. Local native guides frequently 
left before their time of service was up. 

In spite of many attacks, and the murder of almost 
every straggler by lurking natives, Stanley continued to 
practice the lesson of patience he had learned from Liv- 


HENRY M. STANLEY 


213 


ingstone. But his forbearance was often mistaken for 
fear, and led to more attacks. After six hundred miles 
of such advance they reached friendly natives, in a 



beautiful country, with plenty of game and vegetables. 
Nevertheless, when they reached Lake Victoria, over a 
hundred miles farther on, more than one-third of their 








214 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

original number had deserted or been killed, including 
one of Stanley’s three white assistants. 

While he was preparing to explore this lake, he heard 
that it would take years to trace its shores. As for the 
people that lived near it — well, some of them had tails, 
some trained large and fierce dogs of war, while others 
were cannibals. No wonder Stanley could not get vol¬ 
unteers to sail his exploring boat, and was obliged to 
draft those who manned it. 

They had no easy task, but it did not take them years 
to get around. In four months they knew the entire 
coast. In the region north of Lake Victoria, a friendly 
king invited Stanley to visit him. His people were not 
black savages, but were of a dark reddish-brown color, 
and half-civilized. Stanley found this to be a country of 
great natural resources, though little use was made of 
many of them. As a matter of fact, the banana plant 
furnished about everything a native wanted or needed, 
except meat and iron. 

By the time Stanley had completed this work he had 
lost much more weight, mainly due to lack of food. Then 
fever attacked him, and when he recovered he was thin, 
indeed. Another of his English assistants and some of 
his best native helpers died. Did he give up and go 
home? He did not. As soon as he was able to move, 
off they started to the southwest toward Lake Tan¬ 
ganyika ( Tan-gan-ye'ka ). 

On the way they met one friendly old chief who told 
them that his own people were great travelers, too. He 


HENRY M. STANLEY 



said that some of his explorers “saw a strange people in 
one of those far-off lands who had long ears descending to 
their feet. One ear formed a mat to sleep on, the other 
served to cover them from the cold like a dressed hide! 
They tried to coax 
one of them to come 
and see me, but the 
journey was long 
and he died on the 
way.” I can imag¬ 
ine the twinkle in 
the old man’s eye as 
he told this African 
fairy tale to enter¬ 
tain his white vis¬ 
itors. 

Arriving at Lake 
Tanganyika, Stan¬ 
ley heard many con¬ 
flicting stories from 
natives and Arabs 
as to whether this lake had any outlet, and if so, just 
which stream it was and where it went. Most of them 
said there was no outlet. Stanley found that the water 
level was higher than it had been when he found Liv¬ 
ingstone here. As the natives described it, the lake “ate 
up the land.” This had been going on ever since living 
men could remember, and they had to keep moving back 
from the shore. 


David Livingstone 


216 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


In sailing round the lake, Stanley found only one 
stream that looked as though it might be an outlet. In 
this the water was very sluggish, sometimes seeming to 
flow slowly toward the lake, sometimes away from it. 
It would seem that just about then this stream was 
changing from an inlet to an outlet, due to the rising of 
the waters of the lake, for now it is plainly an outlet and 
flows into one of the main headwaters of the Congo. 



The Congo a Thousand Miles Inland 


He determined to push westward, try to find the 
streams which form that great river, and follow it to the 
Atlantic. By the time he was ready to leave, thirty- 
eight of his hundred seventy men had deserted, frightened 
by stories of cannibals ahead. Stanley pushed on with 
what were left, found the supposed cannibals to be very 
friendly, though hideous and dirty, and reached the place 
where the two main streams meet. Now their task was 
to follow this waterway through absolutely unknown 
country and see if it really became the Congo. If it did 


HENRY M. STANLEY 


217 


not, they would probably have to work their way back 
over the route along which they had advanced. And 
even if it did prove to be that wonderful river, they had 
as great a distance to go (about nine hundred miles) as 
they had already come. 

The things related by an Arab trader whom they met 
here did not sound at all encouraging. He claimed to 
know “all about the river,” and said “it flowed north 



A Congo Chief’s Hut 


and north and north.” Of course it could not be the 
Congo, if this were true. Moreover, he told of a country 
of warlike dwarfs farther on, and of fearful adventures he 
had had there, although he had seen great stores of ivory. 
Then there was more talk of cannibal tribes, and of lions 
and leopards and gorillas and immense boas to be met all 
along the way. 

Nevertheless, they started, working their way through 
dense forests, dripping with moisture, where the heavy 
foliage shut out all daylight. The undergrowth was 



218 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


very thick, the soil was a mucky clay, and the air was 
very, very hot. Tribes were found so shut off from the 
rest of the world that they did not know of the existence 
of the nearest native settlement. 

They saw only one of the. “dwarfs,” and he was four 
and a half feet tall. He was a queer looking little man, 
carried poisoned arrows, and was a true savage. He 
called thunder Kirembo-rembo. Doesn’t Kirembo-rembo 
sound like thunder? Savages have a peculiar way of 
naming sounds with words that resemble them. 

From now on, the natives were more and more hostile. 
Every time a stop was made to rest, a corral had to be 
built for protection against attacks from man and wild 
animals. To add to their difficulties, they came to a 
series of cataracts, which it took them over three weeks to 
pass by. 

Despite all these worries, Stanley was somewhat 
cheered to discover, soon after they passed the equator, 
going north, that the river began to turn westward. As 
they went forward, they had less and less trouble with the 
natives, for some of these tribes had been reached by 
Portuguese traders from the Atlantic coast, who had 
taught them that peace with the white men was better 
than war. 

On the other hand, the river became more and more 
difficult. Imagine, if you can, having to struggle around 
thirty-two falls in the course of three hundred miles 
travel. At one of these falls, Stanley’s last white assis¬ 
tant was carried over and lost. Quite as dangerous as 


HENRY M. STANLEY 


219 


the falls were the stretches of water wildly rushing be¬ 
tween steep cliffs and through narrow gorges, and the 
still wilder rapids where the water ran at the rate of 
thirty miles an hour. Food was scarce; the men were 
worn out. It is no wonder that at one time they were a 
month getting three miles ahead. 

Finally, they got to within three days’ march of a 
place where there were said to be white men. That is, it 
was a three days’ march for strong and healthy men. As 
things were, they could not make it at all. Three of the 
men volunteered to go for aid. In a short time a relief 
caravan came into sight. You may imagine what a 
great joy this sight was to the few men who were left of 
the expedition that had started from Zanzibar nearly 
three years before. The relief caravan brought them 
civilized food and other comforts, thus saving them from 
exhaustion and starvation. 

At last Stanley’s troubles were over. An easy run 
brought him to the end of a journey that had carried him 
from east to west through the center of the Dark Con¬ 
tinent down to the mouth of its great river. 

Fiom the Congo a steamer took the little party down 
around the Cape of Good Hope and back to Zanzibar. 
This long journey was made, not because Stanley was a 
great traveler, but because he was a man of his word. He 
had promised his porters before leaving that he would 
return with them. It was not till he had seen them safe 
in their homes that the “master” felt free to return to his 
own land. 


PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE 

It seems that men will not be satisfied to cease from 
exploration until every nook and corner of the earth has 
been seen and described. You have read how some of the 
great ocean voyagers sailed the seas, and how some of the 
inland travelers made their discoveries. Early maps 
were corrected and true descriptions of strange lands and 
peoples were given to the world. But the region around 
the North Pole was still unknown. Greenland was dis¬ 
covered and partly explored. Seekers for the Northwest 
Passage pushed as far north as they could. Whalers 
sailed away up into the Arctic seas. But there was ever 
a limit. Ice and snow and gales and bitter cold always 
drove them back. 

But, man-fashion, they refused to be beaten. They 
would give up their search for a Northwest Passage and 
make a better one. We have it in the Panama Canal. 
They would give up their pursuit of the whale — whales 
were becoming scarce, anyway — and get better oil out 
of the earth. But they would not give up their efforts to 
learn the secrets of that unknown northland, wrapped in 
its icy mantle. 

Attempts were made in many ways and from all di¬ 
rections. It was even suggested that a balloon be tried, 
or a submarine, the latter tc dive under the ice and then 


220 


PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE 221 

come up in the sea that was supposed to surround the 
Pole. 

Meanwhile, an American, Robert E. Peary, began to 
work at this problem. He made a number of difficult 
and dangerous trips into the 
Far North, on one of which 
he drew a map of the north 
coast of Greenland. Once he 
reached to within two hundred 
miles of the Pole, but had to 
turn back or starve. As it 
was, the party were forced to 
kill and eat the dogs. They 
were saved by finding and 
killing some musk-oxen and 
Arctic hares, which they were 
glad to eat raw. Robeet E . Peaey 

His experiences made Peary 

decide that there was only one possible way to reach the 
North Pole. This was to get as far north as he could 
during the summer season, lay up for the winter, and 
then make his dash for the Pole in the spring. 

He already had a ship of special construction, the 
Roosevelt. Compared with earlier Arctic ships, this had 
more engine power and carried less sail. It was of light 
draft, so as to be able to go close in shore to avoid heavy 
ice, and also to lift more easily when squeezed between 
floes, which are large fields of floating ice. Breaking 
through is not the best way. It is better to dodge and 





222 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


pry and push between and among the icebergs and drift¬ 
ing cakes. The ship was made of wood, which, while not 
so strong as steel, is not pierced so easily by a sharp corner 
of heavy ice. Some of the framework was of steel, and 
there was a thin steel sheathing that helped the vessel to 



Eskimos and their Dogs 


slip through loose ice, but the hull was made mainly of 
oak. 

The Roosevelt sailed from New York well fitted out 
for her work. She carried food needed for the coming 
sledge journey. This consisted of hardtack, tea, con¬ 
densed milk, and pemmican. Pemmican is a prepared 








PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE 223 



condensed food, made of beef, fat, and dried fruits. 
There were, besides, large stores of oil and alcohol for 
fuel. In the Far North you cannot cut down a tree to 
make a fire every time you camp. 

As soon as they passed the Arctic Circle they had day¬ 
light all the time. A stop was made at Etah (. E'tah ), 
the most northerly Eskimo settlement, to take on some of 
the people and their dogs. Real Arctic work is impossible 






















224 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

without these dogs to pull the sledges laden with provi- 
sions. 

Etah lies half-way between the Arctic Circle and the 
North Pole. It is about as far from New York as Eng¬ 
land is. Here the Arctic night is nearly four months long, 
with no light except that of the moon and the stars. 
Then there is a day of the same length when the sun 



Polar Bears 


never sets. Between them are two short periods of light 
and dark like our own day and night. During the “ day,” 
which is also the Arctic summer, grass grows long and 
thick. Dandelions, buttercups, and poppies bloom, but 
they have no odor. Still, bumblebees visit them, and 
flies and mosquitoes are numerous. Here, too, are found 
those other natives of the land of ice and snow, the 
reindeer, Polar bear, and walrus. 








PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE 225 

The Eskimos are a queer people, having no money and 
no written language. They are restless, and do not like 
to stay long in one place. In summer they live in skin 
tents called tupiks. For winter, they build huts, called 
igloos , of stone and earth. Snow igloos are what you 
usually see in pictures, but they are used only when the 


Boat attacked by Walrus 

Eskimos are traveling. Three skilful Eskimos can build 
one of these in less than two hours. But though the Es¬ 
kimos are rather childlike in some ways, they are hardy 
and trustworthy, and they help to make possible such a 
trip as Peary’s. 

The dogs, as I said, are absolutely necessary. They 
have to be fed meat, generally walrus meat, for they can¬ 
not live on anything else. To provide food for them 





226 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

much walrus hunting has to be done. This is even more 
exciting and dangerous than Polar bear hunting. These 
huge animals, weighing from one to two tons, will attack 
the boats fiercely. And they are well armed, so to speak, 
for their tusks can pierce eight inches of ice. They must 
be harpooned as well as shot, for when killed they sink 
like lead. 

Beyond Etah, there lay ahead the dangerous voyage 
to Fort Sheridan. This meant dodging through three 
hundred fifty miles of moving, shifting, but almost solid 
ice. This ice is not frozen sea-water, but huge sheets 
and bergs broken off from glaciers, moving southward 
from the Polar Sea toward Baffin Bay. Only three 
ships besides the Roosevelt have safely made the trip up 
and back through this channel. Even when they were 
able to follow a “lead,” the name given to a stretch of 
open water, it would be filled with floating bergs and floes, 
which must be avoided. 

Arriving at Fort Sheridan in September, they made 
ready for the long winter wait and for the fall hunting. 
Supplies and equipment were landed, so that in case the 
ship were crushed in the ice, or took fire, they would be 
prepared to work back to Etah on sledges. You may 
know how determined Peary was to reach the Pole when 
he says: “Had we lost the Roosevelt at Cape Sheridan, 
we should have spent the winter in the box houses which 
we constructed and in the spring should have made the 
dash for the Pole just the same. We should then have 
walked the three hundred and fifty miles to Cape Sabine, 


PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE 227 


crossed the Smith Sound ice to Etah, and waited for a 
ship.” All that would not have been quite so simple as 
it sounds. 

Having settled in their winter quarters, they began the 
fall hunting to secure and pack away as much meat as 



In Winter Quarters 


possible. In the inland lakes are large salmon trout. 
But they will not take any bait. Through holes chopped 
in the ice the Eskimo women dangled small pieces of 
carved ivory in the water. The fish which came up to 
examine these strange visitors were speared by the 
women. More autumn work was to sledge supplies to 
Cape Columbia, ninety miles to the northwest, so as to 






228 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


be ready to strike out from there over the ice of the 
Polar Sea in the spring. 

Then the winter, or “night”! Imagine, if you can, 
four months of no sun. The ship is held fast in her icy 
berth, everything is covered with snow, the wind howls, 
and the temperature runs from zero to sixty below. 
And there is nothing to be done but just sit there and 
wait, except for the week or so of moonlit days each 
month, when the moon circles round and round the sky, 
and some hunting can be done. 

Peary’s party could not start before the middle of 
February, and they must be back by the middle of June. 
Earlier than February there is not enough light for 
sledging; after June, there is too much open water. 

When they were at last able to leave Cape Columbia, 
there lay ahead, between them and the Pole, over four 
hundred miles of ice. This is not the ice of your skating 
pond. None of it is smooth, and very little of it is level. 
The winds and the tides push up “pressure ridges” 
between the floes. But worst of all are the leads of open 
water, as black as ink. Some way must be found to 
pass them, going up and coming back. The frequent 
shifting of the ice makes it impossible to know when or 
where a lead may be met. One might have opened right 
under Peary and his men when they were camped, but it 
just didn’t happen to do so. 

In case of a small lead they would go around. If it 
were too large for that, they would wait for it to close up, 
or to freeze over. That does not take long in a tempera- 


PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE 229 



ture of 40 degrees below zero. Sometimes they would 
chop out a big ice cake with pickaxes, and use it as a 
ferry boat. 

A single party could not cover this distance and take 
along enough food and drink. So Peary planned to move 
in relays for a while. A pioneer party would go ahead, 


Traveling over the Ice Hummocks 

a day in advance of the main division. Supporting 
parties, as long as they could, would go back to head¬ 
quarters and bring up more provisions. Then, too, 
Peary knew that all these trails would help him find his 
way back more easily. 

When they were one hundred thirty-three miles from 
the Pole, the last supporting party was sent back to 
Etah. Peary kept with him four Eskimos, and his 




230 


GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


negro assistant, Henson, who had been his companion on 
all his trips. They had five sledges and forty picked 
dogs. Peary planned to cover most of this distance in 
five marches of twenty-five miles each. Fortunately, 
he was able to cover the distance almost exactly as he had 
planned to do it. 

With only three more miles to go, Peary took a light 



An Eskimo Dog Team 


sledge and, accompanied by two of the Eskimos, pushed 
on for about ten miles. Then, taking an observation 
under the midnight sun, he found that they had not only 
reached the North Pole, but had passed it! Think of 
going north, and then, while you keep on in the same 
direction, finding that you are going south. 

This was on April 6, 1909. Peary retraced his steps 
for some distance along the trail and stopped. Taking 








PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE 231 


out the American Flag Mrs. Peary had given him years 
before for this very purpose, he set it up as a sign that the 
honor and glory of finding the North Pole belongs to the 
United States. Then the whole party gave three rousing 
cheers for the Stars and Stripes, the first flag to be cheered 
in that place since the world was made. 

Geography seems queer at the North Pole. There is 
no direction but south. Every wind that blows is a 
south wind. One day and one night make a year. The 
North Star is directly overhead, while other stars circle 
the heavens, always keeping the same distance from the 
horizon. 

The joy of having found the Pole was followed at 
once by the anxiety of getting back before the break-up 
of the ice % to the southward. They could travel more 
swiftly now, for they did not have to break a fresh trail, 
nor take the time to build igloos for shelter. But they 
were often forced to lay up during the “day,” on account 
of the blinding glare and burn of the sun, which was then 
to the south, and wait for “night,” when the sun was 
behind them. It was very cold, from 18 to 30 degrees 
below zero, but on the whole they had lucky weather, and 
reached Cape Columbia safely in a little over two weeks. 
One of the Eskimos accounted for their good fortune by 
saying: “The devil is asleep or having trouble with his 
wife, or we should never have come back so easily.” 

The rest of the homeward journey was uneventful. At 
its end, Peary received the honors justly due to the man 
who had planted Old Glory at the North Pole. 


FROM ICE-LAND TO VINE-LAND 


A long time ago there was a bold sailor called Eric the 
Red, who lived on an island. The winters there are so 
long and cold that all the 
rivers have become rivers of 
solid ice known as glaciers. 
Along the northern shore of 
this island the ocean, also, is 
frozen during the winter. 
With so much ice and so 
little else, it is no wonder 
that the island is named Ice¬ 
land. 

Eric lived on the south side 
of Iceland, which is not quite 
so cold as the north side. 
He and many other North¬ 
men had left their native 
land along the North Sea to 
make their homes in Iceland. 
These Northmen, or Vikings, 
were brave seamen and fierce 
warriors. They were so fierce 
and strong that no foe dared 
interfere with the ships that carried their whale-oil, 
butter, and wool from the island to the neighboring 

232 



Leif Ericson 
From the statue by Miss A. Whit¬ 
ney, Boston, Mass. 


FROM ICE-LAND TO VINE-LAND 233 


countries. Among the Vikings there were poets and 
other writers who kept a record of the adventures of the 
warriors and sailors. 

Eric the Red was one of the boldest and bravest of the 
Vikings, but he had a very bad temper. One day in a fit 
of anger he killed a man. The Northmen thought so 
badly of Eric for killing one of his comrades that they 
did not want him to live among them any longer. They 
let him have a vessel, and Eric set out with a few followers 
to find a new home. 

The vessel was long and narrow. The wooden frame¬ 
work was covered with wooden plates overlapping like 
shingles on a roof. The bow of the boat was in the form 
of a dragon's head, and the stern was shaped like a 
dragon’s tail. A square sail was set to a single mast. 
Along both sides of the ship there were seats for sixteen 
rowers, each with an oar twenty feet long. There was 
no cabin to shelter the men from the weather, but they 
had a good supply of food and weapons, which made them 
feel ready for anything that might happen. 

Sailing west, the little company came to an island much 
larger than Iceland. It seemed to be just as icy, since 
they could not reach the shore for some time because of 
the ice. When they found a landing place, they began 
to explore the island. When they came to a grassy plain, 
Eric named the island Greenland. 

On the grassy plain they built houses out of the stones 
found nearby. And here Eric’s son, whose name was 
Leif Ericson, grew up to be as big and strong and as bold 


234 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


and brave as his father was. What is more, he could 
control his temper. 

Leif often went to Iceland and to the native land of the 
Northmen. While on one of these journeys, he heard 
tales of a land farther west than Greenland. Leif col- 



A Northman’s Ship at Sea 


lected a company of sailors as eager for adventure as he 
was, and one fine summer day they set out to discover 
what land lay beyond Greenland. 

The first land they saw was covered with flat stones. 
It did not look very interesting; so Leif named it “slate 
land” without stopping to examine it. Some days later 
they saw a thickly wooded shore. After the snow and 
ice that the Vikings had been used to all their lives, the 
deep green forests were a pleasant surprise. This coast 
was more inviting than “ slate land,” yet Eric did not stop. 


FROM ICE-LAND TO VINE-LAND 235 

He kept on south, following the coast line, till he came to 
the mouth of a river, where he cast anchor and decided 
to spend the winter. 

After their houses were built, the wanderers spent the 
time in hunting, fishing, and exploring the country. One 
day a sailor who had gone for a walk was away so long 
that Leif thought he was lost. Just as a searching party 
was about to start, the man came back. But he seemed 
to have lost his wits. He rolled his eyes, twisted his face, 
and talked to himself in a language none of the others 
could understand. When he became more calm, he told 
Leif: “I have great news. I have found grapevines and 
grapes!” 

By going to see them himself, Leif found that the man 
had cause for his excitement. The grapes were so 
abundant that when they had gathered all they wanted, 
they had enough to fill a small boat. Because of the 
grapes that he found there, Leif named the place Vinland. 

The coast explored by Leif Ericson and the place where 
the grapes were found is now known to be part of North 
America. The story of his voyage was written down in 
Iceland, but people of other countries knew nothing about 
his discoveries. Finally, the story was forgotten even in 
Iceland. It was not until hundreds of years after America 
had been discovered by Columbus that the story was 
found again. 


A NAME FOR THE NEW WORLD 

At the time Columbus made his first voyage, there was 
a young Italian in Spain looking after the business of an 
Italian merchant. This handsome, black-eyed, dark¬ 
haired man was Americus Vespucius. Of course Americus 
heard about the famous voyage. And no doubt he 

hastened to make the ac¬ 
quaintance of Columbus, 
for he spent all his spare 
time in studying geogra¬ 
phy, and he lost no chance 
to learn something new 
about it. 

In order to see for him¬ 
self some of the things de¬ 
scribed by Columbus, 
Americus went as a pilot 
on an expedition to the 
New World. Although 
Columbus was now making his third voyage, no one yet 
knew that a new world had been discovered. They still 
thought the strange lands were part of Asia. 

On his first and his second voyage Vespucius visited 
the countries already explored by Columbus. These 
two voyages were made for the King of Spain. On his 
third voyage, made for the King of Portugal, he sailed 

236 



A NAME FOR THE NEW WORLD 237 

along the southeastern coast of South America, landing 
frequently to study the country. 

In some places the Indians received the voyagers with 
showers of arrows, but fled at the sound of a gun. In 
other places they were friendly. But whether they were 
friends or foes, their customs and manners were little to 
the liking of Vespucius. 

On the other hand, he 
found the country with 
its enormous trees, its 
gaily colored birds, and 
its soft and spicy air, de¬ 
lightful. “If Heaven is 
to be found on earth, it 
must be somewhere in 
this region,” he said. 

On New Year’s Day 
he came to the mouth of 
a great river which he 
named River of January 
(Rio de Janeiro). Leav¬ 
ing the river two weeks 
later, he continued his 
southerly course until he was caught by a frightful storm. 
The storm drove the vessels past a desolate island covered 
with glaciers and surrounded by blocks of ice bigger than 
the ships. As soon as the boats could be brought about, 
Vespucius and his half-frozen company started for home. 

Americus Vespucius had found no gold or precious 









238 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

spices, but he had found land farther south than any land 
ever before seen by white men. 

Besides being a master pilot Vespucius was an inter¬ 
esting writer He wrote the story of his voyage. In 
this story he spoke of the shore he had explored as a New 
World. When the story was printed, it was widely read 
and talked about. Among the many who read it, was 
a young scholar who was making a map of the world on 
which he put the newly discovered lands. The map- 
maker (Martin Waldseemuller) suggested that the lands 
described by Americus Vespucius be called America. 
By and by, as more of the New World became known, the 
name spread until it was given to all the Western 
Continent. 


THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD 


For three hundred years after Hudson was lost in the 
bay that now bears his name, men continued to look for 
the Northwest Passage through America. 

A little Norwegian boy, Roald Amundsen, read about 
their adventures and thought he would try to find it 
himself as soon as he grew up. 

With this idea in mind he read 
everything he could get about 
Arctic travel. He learned every¬ 
thing about sailing ships so that 
he could become captain of one 
when he was ready to start. 

Amundsen was twenty-eight 
before his chance came. Then 
he bought a boat, hired the sail¬ 
ors, and put to sea. In Green¬ 
land he took on provisions enough 
to last three years, and his little 
vessel began to nose its way 
through the huge cakes of floating ice. 

In spite of Amundsen’s caution the ship struck a hidden 
rock and stuck fast. No water entered the hold, but 
nothing they could do would get the boat off its rocky 
perch. It looked as though another search for the North¬ 
west Passage was to end in failure. As the brave com- 
239 




240 great deeds of great men 


pany of explorers were giving up hope, a heavy swell of 
the sea lifted the stern of the vessel. The bow swung 
around, and there they were — free and afloat. 

This accident was only the beginning of their troubles. 
They nearly lost the rudder, the fuel gasoline took fire, 
and a gale nearly wrecked them. Then the winter began, 
and they were frozen in the ice. 

While the crew were held prisoners by the ice, the 
Eskimos visited them. Amundsen returned their visit. 
The Eskimos came again, built igloos, and stayed two 
or three weeks at a time. When they went home, they 
sometimes took away more than had been given to them. 

Winter passed and summer came, but the ice would 
not let the patient adventurers out. A second winter 
was spent in the ice-bound bay. Summer came again. 
This time the little boat was released. Twisting this 
way and that through the floating ice, moving slowly 
and carefully, but steadily, toward the west, the staunch 
little craft at last came to a wider and deeper channel. 
And there in the distance was a sail. It belonged to a 
whaling vessel which had come into the Arctic from the 
Pacific Ocean. Since Amundsen had come from the 
Atlantic Ocean, that proved that he had discovered and 
sailed through the Northwest Passage. 

The discovery of the Northwest Passage was only the 
beginning of Amundsen’s adventures. As soon as he 
got back to Norway, he made plans to discover the North 
Pole He bought another boat, the Fram. He was 
almost ready for his second expedition when the news 


THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD 241 

came that Peary had reached the Pole. What should he 
do now? Well, no one had discovered the South Pole. 
Why not find that? So the Fram , instead of sailing into 
the North, sailed off into the South. 

Others had tried to reach the South Pole, and others 
were still trying to reach it. From what he had read 
about their trials, Amundsen decided to start from a 
point opposite that from which the other explorers had 
started. 

The North Pole is in an ocean sometimes frozen solid, 
sometimes full of floating ice, and sometimes almost an 
open sea. The South Pole is surrounded by land. But 
such a land! A land having mountains forever covered 
with many feet of snow; a plateau overlaid with snow and 
ice all the year round; great glaciers, nobody knows how 
deep, slowly moving down to the sea where they break 
off in icebergs as big as a church. Not a green thing is 
to be seen, ever. Night lasts six months. At times the 
wind blows so hard that no living thing can stand up 
against it, and the snow falls so fast that it could cover 
a house in a few minutes. 

Where the largest glacier touches the water, it is so 
thick that it looks as high as a mountain. This towering 
ridge, which nearly surrounds the Bay of Whales, is 
called the Ice Barrier. 

The Fram sailed into the Bay of Whales, and the ship’s 
carpenters built a hut on top of the Ice Barrier. Other 
explorers had been afraid to camp on the Barrier lest they 
should wake up some morning to find themselves floating 


242 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


out to sea on an iceberg. But Amundsen had learned 
from his reading that in the place he chose above the 
Bay of Whales the glacier stands still. 

Amundsen had provided himself with ninety-seven 
Greenland dogs. He thought them better than any other 
animal for getting across the snow bridges over the 
bottomless crevasses and for climbing over the rough 
surface of glaciers. They were quarrelsome fellows and 
had to be chained out of reach of one another when they 
were not at work. But they proved to be very faithful 
and serviceable. Without them, Amundsen said, he 
could not have succeeded. 

No sooner were the explorers comfortably settled in 
their hut than Amundsen, with four men and three dog 
teams, began to carry the food to be stored along the 
route he meant to take towards the South Pole. The 
food was safe from robbers no matter where it was left. 
Not an Eskimo nor an Indian lives in that frigid climate, 
and the only animals are the harmless penguins. 

Traveling where no man has ever set his foot before 
is hard and dangerous work. But no difficulties were 
allowed to prevent the little party from pressing on day 
after day till they reached a spot that Amundsen thought 
a good one for his first food station. They kept provisions 
enough to last them on the return trip and left the rest. 

Going back was easier for the men, for they sat in the 
empty sledges and were drawn along by the dogs. No¬ 
body knows what the dogs thought about this arrangement, 
but they took the men home as cheerfully as they had 


THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD 


243 


brought the food out. That he might find the way 
without trouble when bringing the next load of supplies, 
Amundsen used dried fish as posts to mark the way. 
When the last trip was over, the fish made a dinner for 
the dogs. 

On the second journey they were hindered and wearied 
by storms and cold, but they succeeded in placing two 
more stores of food. Going back this time, the men had 
to walk because the dogs were too weak to draw them. 

No more could be done in the way of placing supplies, 
for the long winter night now closed in on them. The 
men spent the time getting ready for the dash to the Pole, 
which Amundsen intended to make as soon as daylight 
returned. It was the following October before Amundsen 
and his party of four men and four sledges, with only 
enough food to take them to the first base of supplies, 
started. 

On the first day out one of the sledges dropped over the 
edge of an unseen crevasse. The driver seized a trace and 
held on. The dogs dug their paws into the snow and 
braced themselves. The other drivers ran up to help. 
But the combined strength of all was not enough to pull 
the sledge with its heavy load back to the solid ice. Each 
of the four men offered to let himself be lowered into the 
crevasse on a rope in order to take the things off the 
sledge. While the man selected dangled at the end of 
the rope taking supplies off the hanging sledge and fasten¬ 
ing them to another rope to be hauled up, he tried to tell 
the others what it looked like down there. Before he had 


244 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 


finished his description, they all decided that they would 
rather spend the summer at the South Pole than in a 
crevasse. 

In spite of such narrow escapes not a man was hurt nor 
a dog lost, and at the end of a month they had reached the 



The “Norge” above King’s Bay, Spitzbergen 


plateau on which the Pole is located. They rested there 
for two days. 

As the bold adventurers went on, the weather, which 
had been very stormy, began to clear, and the sun came 
out. They looked about and saw nothing but a flat 
whiteness as far as the eye could reach. The only sounds 
to be heard were made by themselves. On they went, 
and at three o’clock, December 14, 1911, they stood on a 







THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD 245 

spot where nobody had ever stood before —the South 
Pole. 

After raising the Norwegian flag, with a pennant from 
the Fram beneath it, at the Pole, the weary but happy 
discoverers faced homeward. They found the Fram in 
the Bay of Whales waiting for them, and before long they 
were back in Norway. 

Amundsen had successfully tested his faith in Eskimo 
dogs as the best motive power for Arctic exploration But 
while he was doing so, a new way of traveling had come 
into use. He now bought an airship in which he pre¬ 
pared to explore the North. It was an Italian dirigible 
made by Colonel Nobile. Amundsen named it the 
Norge and engaged Colonel Nobile to pilot it. 

While the Amundsen party was waiting at King’s Bay, 
on the island of Spitzbergen, our Commander Byrd 
arrived there in his plane. At two o’clock one morning 
all hands in the Amundsen camp tumbled out of bed at 
the sound of a humming motor. They were at the Byrd 
camp in time to see the Josephine Ford winging its way 
into the North. All that day, no matter how busy they 
were, they kept glancing at the sky. Toward five o’clock 
the purr of a motor was heard again, and soon afterward 
a tiny speck appeared in the north. It was the American 
plane. Byrd had flown over the North Pole and back! 
Amundsen was so delighted and excited that as Byrd 
stumbled out of the plane, he caught him and kissed him 
on both cheeks. Byrd later flew over the South Pole, too. 
But that is another story. 


246 GREAT DEEDS OF GREAT MEN 

Amundsen got the Norge under way, and it floated 
across the North Pole to Alaska. Amundsen and Nobile 
did not get on well together, and Amundsen finally came 
to dislike Nobile. 

Two years after the cruise of the Norge Nobile himself 
took the Norge , rechristened the Italia , on an exploring 



expedition to the Arctic. The Italia flew over the Pole 
and headed back to King’s Bay. She lost her way, 
dropped on the ice, and was ruined. 

Amundsen forgot about the wrong he believed Nobile 
had done him. He boarded a plane as quickly as possible 
and disappeared into the North to look for the missing 
fliers. No one has ever heard from him since, and 
nobody knows where or when or how his plane was lost. 
















INDEX 


Acropolis, 12 

Africa, 6, 28, 91, 100, 101, 108, 121 
130, 142, 144, 210, 211 
Alexander the Great, 7, 16-26, 109 
Alexandria, 16, 21, 36 
Alaric, 39-46, 50, 57, 109 
Alfred, 57-65 
Alps, 31, 188 
Amundsen, Roald, 239 
Antony, Mark, 39 
Arabian Nights, 55, 85 
Arabian Sea, 5, 16 
Arabs, 90, 106 
Aristotle, 17, 89 
Armada, 148-150 
Asia, 6, 19, 20, 22, 31, 36, 42, 99 
Athena, 13 

Athenian Empire, 10, 16 
Athenian League, 10, n 
Athenians, the, 7, 8, 10, n, 14, 28 
Athens, 7, 9, 10-12, 14, 28, 29, 44 
Austerlitz, 191, 192 
Australia, 164 
Austria, 78, 187, 188, 192 
Austrians, the, 188, 189, 192 
Aztecs, 11, 116, 117, 119 

Babylon, 25 
Bagdad, 2, 55 
Behistun Rock, 2 
Belgium, 196 

Black Hole of Calcutta, 158 
Black Sea, 6, 16 
book-rooms (libraries), 29, 39 


Bosporus, 6 

Braddock, General, 173, 174 
Brazil, 122 
Britons, 57 
Bucephalus, 18 

Byrd, Richard Evelyn, 245, 246 
Cadiz, 148 

Caesar, Julius, 27-37, 39, 47 
Calcutta, 157, 158 
cannibals, 164, 168, 216 
cannon, no, 160, 193 
Cape Columbia, 227, 228, 231 
Cape Flattery, 166 

Cape of Good Hope, 101-103, 108, 
130, 152, 219 
Cape Horn, 146, 165 
Cape York, 167 
caravan, 81, 82 
Caribbean Sea, 142 
Caspian Sea, 16, 24, 85 
castle, Norman, 68, 69 
Cathay, 80, 83, 84, 97, 99 
Central America, 99, 142 
chariot, scythe-bearing, 22 
Charlemagne, 51-58, 109 
Children of the Sun, 134, 135, 140 
China, 80, 90 

Chunda Sahib, 154, 155, 157 
Circus Maximus, 40 
Clive, Robert, 152-160 
Clotilda, 48-50 
Clovis, 46-52 
Colosseum, 41 


247 



248 


INDEX 


Columbus, Christopher, 84, 89-101, 
120, 121, 169 
compass, 90 

Congo, 101, 216, 217, 219 
Congress, Continental, 179 
Cook, Captain James, 161-168 
Cortes, Hernando, 109-119, 122, 131, 
140 

Crusades, 72, 79 
Cuba, 97 
curfew, 70, 71 
Cuzco, 135, 138, 139 

DaGama, 100-108, 120, 121, 147, 152, 
163 

Danes, 58, 59, 61, 64, 65, 67 
Danube River, 16, 41, 42, 54 
Darius, 1-8, 21-23 
Declaration of Independence, 180 
Diaz, Bartholomew, 101, 102 
Doomsday Book, 70, 71 
Drake, Francis, 120, 141-151 

East India Company, 149, 153, 157 
East Indies, 147 

Edward, King of England, 65, 66 
Egbert, 58 
Egypt, 21, 36 
Elba, Island of, 195 
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 142, 147 
England, 57-72, 78, 142-144, 149, i5 2 
157, 160, 162, 186, 188, 192, 193 
English, the, 70, 71, 152-158, 169, 170 
176, 196 

Ericson, Leif, 233-235 
Eric the Red, 232, 233 
Eskimos, 223, 225, 229, 231 
Etah, 223, 224, 226, 227, 229 

Forum, Roman, 30 
Fram, the, 241, 245 


France, 31, 47, 58, 65, 152, 153, 162 
184, 187, 188, 191, 193, 195 
Frank(s), the, 47, 48, 50, 52, 74 
French, the, 71, 78, 152, 153, 169, 170 
176, 186, 189, 195, 196 

Gaul, 31, 32, 34, 35, 41, 46, 47 , 48 , 50 
Genoa, 83, 90 

Germans, the, 31,32,34, 35, 41,44, 50, 

52, 58, 196 

Germany, 186 
giant(s), 124, 125, 144 
Golden Hind, the, 146, 147 
Gordian knot, 20 
Goths, the, 41-46, 5 °, 54, 109 
Granicus, 20 

Greece, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 17, 19, 29, 30, 
42-44 

Greeks, the, 6, 8-11, 20, 24, 30, 43 
Greenland, 220, 221, 233 
gunpowder, no 

Harold, 66-68 
Haroun al Raschid, 55, 85 
Hastings, Battle of, 68 
Huns, the, 42, 54 

Iceland, 91 
Inca(s), the, 135-140 
India, 5, 24, 25, 88, 90, 91, 101, 102, 
104-108, 120, 157, 160 
Indian Ocean, 103, 105, 130 
Indians, the, 96, 97, 109-m, 113,116, 
117,132,134,136,169,170,171,173 
Indus, 16, 24 
Iron Crown, 54, 190, 191 
Issus, 21 

Italy, 28, 31, 32, 35, 44, 46 
Java, 167 

Jerusalem, 21, 72, 74, 76, 78-80 


INDEX 


249 


John, King of Portugal, 91 
Josephine Ford, the, 245 

knight(s), 74, 76 
Kublai Khan, 80, 87, 97 

Leonidas, 8, 43 
Lima, 139, 140 

Lincoln, Abraham, 1, 198-209 
Lisbon, 104, 108, 148 
Livingstone, David, 210, 212, 215 
Lombardy, 189, 191 

Macedonia, 16, 17, 19, 26 
Macedonians, the, 20, 23, 24 
Madras, 152, 153, 158 
Magellan, Ferdinand, hi, 120-130 
Magellan, Strait of, 126, 144, 146 
Mahommed Ali, 154, 157 
Marathon, 7, 8, 10 
Marengo, 189 

Mediterranean Sea, 5, 21, 28, 90 
Melinda, 105, 107 
Mexico, in, iiSj 117, 119, 122, 131 
Mexico, City of, in, 112 
Mohammedan, 74, 105 
Montezuma, in, 112, 114, 116, 118 
Moscow, 193, 195 
Mount Vernon, 176, 179, 183 

Napoleon, 184-199 

Natal, 103 

Netherlands, 141 

New Orleans, 190 

New World, 99, 109, no, 131 

New Zealand, 163, 168 

Nile, the, 21, 210 

Nina, the, 94, 98 

Nobile, Umberto, 245, 246 

Norge, the, 245, 246 

Northmen, 232-235 


Northwest Passage, 146, 168, 220, 239 
Normandy, 66 
Normans, the, 67, 70 
North Pole, 220-231 

“Old Guard,” 196, 197 
Olympic Games, 19 

Pacific Ocean, 127, 143, 144, 146, 162, 
163, 168 
Palos, 92, 98 
Panama, 132, 134 
Panama, Isthmus of, 143 
parchment, 62 

Paris, 46, 47, 50, 188, 189, 192, 195 

Parthenon, 12, 13 

Peary, Robert E., 220-231 

Pekin, 80, 81 

Pericles, 8-15, 16 

Persepolis, 23, 24 

Persia, 1, 3, 10, 23, 85 

Persian Empire, 19, 25 

Persian Gulf, 24, 85 

Persians, the, 2, 7-10 

Peru, 135, 140, 146 

Phidias, 13 

Philip, King of Macedonia, 17-19 
Philip, King of Spain, 147, 148 
Philippine Islands, 128 
Pinta, the, 94, 97 
Pizarro, 131-140, 146 
Plassey, 158, 160 
Plymouth, 141, 147 
Polo, Marco, 80-89, 100 
Pompey, 31, 35, 36 
Pope, The, 53, 54 , 190 
Portugal, 91 
printing, 2, 39, 84 

Rajah Sahib, 155, 156 


250 


INDEX 


Red Sea, 5, 16 
Remus, 27 

Rhine, the, 31, 34, 47 
Richard the Lionhearted, 72-80 
roads, good, 4, 35, 52, 138, 188 
Robin Hood, 78 

Romans, the, 28, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 40, 
45 , 46 

Rome, 27-31, 35, 36, 39, 41, 44, 47 , 54 , 
57 

Romulus, 27 

Roosevelt, the, 221, 222, 226 
Rubicon, 35, 36 
Russia, 6, 193 
Russians, the, 194, 195 

Saladin, 74, 76, 78 

Sandwich Islands, 168 

San Francisco, 146 

Saxons, 52, 53, 57 

scurvy, 104, 107, 161, 163, 166, 167 

sepoys, 152-155 

Seven Years’ War, 162, 173, 176, 182 
Sheridan, Fort, 226 
siege-castle, 77 

slaves, 30, 31, 36, 37, 45, 142, 200, 203, 
204, 207, 208 

South America, 99, 121, 122, 146 
South Pole, 241-245 
Spain, 28, 31, 109, 121, 128 
Spaniards, the, 109, 113-117, 122,123, 
138, 141, 142, 146, 150 
Spanish Main, the, 142, 148, 150 
Spartans, 8, 9, 43 

Spice Islands, 90, 91, 99, 101, 106, 108 
121, 130 

Stanley, Henry M., 210-219 
St. Helena, 197 


Suez Canal, 5, 152 
Suez, Isthmus of, 5 
Surajah Dowlah, 157, 158, 160 
Switzerland, 32 

Tanganyika, Lake, 214, 215 
taxes, 4 

Temple of the Sun, 138 
Tenth Legion, 34 
Thermopylae, 8, 197 
Tiber, 27 
Tigris, 23, 84 
Tripoli, 16 
Turkey, 84 
Turks, the, 72, 76 

United States, 128, 231 

Venice, 80, 83, 84 
Vespucius, Americus, 236-238 
Victoria, Lake, 213, 214 
Vikings, 232-235 
Vinland, 235 

Wagram, battle of, 192, 193 
War, Civil, 207-209 
War of the Revolution, 179 
Washington, city of, 203 
Washington, George, 169-184, 187 
Waterloo, battle of, 196, 197 
Wellington, Duke of, 196, 197 
West Indies, 99, 142 
William the Conqueror, 65-72 

Xandu, 87 
Xerxes, 8, 9, n 

Zanzibar, 211, 219 
Zeus, 11 



















































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